Data Centre Power Turns Local: El Paso Gas Ruling, New Jersey Penalty, Ameren Coal Plan

The proposed decision, released on 30 September, found that El Paso Electric failed to adequately consider alternatives to the McCloud facility and never issued a request for proposals to contractors, according to Inside Climate News. The judges recommended approval only on condition that the utility does not pass capital and operating costs to its ratepayers. Without that condition, they recommend denial. The five commissioners of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas have the final say, and no vote has been scheduled.

The numbers matter. The plant would consist of 813 modular natural gas generators supplied by Enchanted Rock, each rated at 450 kilowatts, at an estimated cost of $499 million. It would supply Meta exclusively for the first five years, after which it would connect to the wider transmission system. Meta subsidiary Wurldwide drove the process, the judges wrote, with the selection of the project following the company's prescribed timeline and preferences.

Utilities are not the only ones under scrutiny.

New Jersey sets a price on unpermitted generation

New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection fined a Vineland AI data centre operator $1.07 million after it installed and operated 62 natural gas generators without required permits, Data Center Knowledge reported. The state announced the enforcement action on 22 September. The operator, DataOne, disputed the determination on the temporary generators but said it would apply for air permits, according to the New Jersey Monitor.

"AI data centers are increasingly becoming power plants as well as computing facilities," Abhijit Sunil, a senior analyst at Forrester, told Data Center Knowledge. "AI infrastructure can now be deployed faster than traditional permitting and inspection processes were designed to oversee." Sunil also pushed back on the idea that behind-the-meter generation is a free win: "Taking pressure off the grid doesn't eliminate an environmental cost." The pollutants in question are NOx, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, plus continuous or frequent noise.

Other operators are moving in the opposite direction on paper. Ameren Missouri filed a long-range energy plan with the Missouri Public Service Commission on 28 September that would add 5,400 megawatts of new gas by 2032, an increase of 1,700 MW, delay the closure of two Labadie coal units by six years to 2042, and extend Sioux to 2035, according to CleanTechnica. The plan also cuts pre-2030 solar investment by 900 MW and total wind investment by 500 MW. Jenn DeRose of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign in Missouri said the utility is "gambling with the future of humanity" as it powers data centres with coal and gas.

Transparency is the next battleground

In Europe, the fight is about disclosure rather than permits. Lighthouse Reports filed a complaint under the Aarhus Convention on Monday accusing the European Commission of building a "wall of silence" over data centre energy and water use, POLITICO reported. Commission figures put Europe's data centres at 20.7 terawatt-hours of electricity and more than 8 million cubic metres of water in 2025, a 26% rise in power and 52% in water year on year. Those totals are aggregates only, because a 2024 law bars disclosure of individual facility data.

The gap shows up nationally too. NL Times reported that less than a quarter of larger Dutch data centres publish electricity and drinking water figures, despite the Energy Efficiency Directive requiring reporting from facilities of at least 500 kilowatts. The Dutch Datacenter Association counted 186 commercial data centres at that threshold at the end of last year; the Netherlands Enterprise Agency holds data on only 104, with public electricity figures for 44 and water for 47. Statistics Netherlands put Dutch data centre electricity use at 5.1 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024, 4.6% of national consumption, and grid operator TenneT projects 10 to 15% by 2030.

The alternative to gas is being built slowly. Valar Atomics wants to place 456 small nuclear reactors on more than 9,500 acres of federal land near Price, Utah, producing around 9.6 gigawatts, with non-nuclear construction possibly starting by the end of this year and first reactors in 2028, according to documents reviewed by NPR. For scale, the whole state of Utah averages around 4 gigawatts. The Bureau of Land Management's Utah office confirmed to NPR that it is reviewing the application for completeness.

None of this settles the cost question. The El Paso judges' condition is a preview of how regulators may handle the next wave: not banning on-site power, but refusing to let everyone else pay for it.