Data center surge strains grid, raises water and permitting questions, presenters tell Georgia committee

ATLANTA — Industry representatives told a legislative committee primer that rapid growth in data center capacity is creating significant new electricity demand, raising questions about generation, transmission and water use for Georgia communities.

Josh Levy, executive with the Data Center Coalition, told the panel that U.S. data center capacity could grow from roughly 25 gigawatts in 2024 to 80 gigawatts by 2030, and that trend is a key driver of the recent surge in power demand. "We need places to store, places to process that data," Levy said, adding that the industry’s expansion is helping make Georgia "a national leader in attracting data center investment."

The panel heard detailed industry context: PricewaterhouseCoopers data cited by Levy estimated Georgia’s data center industry supported about 30,070 direct jobs and more than 176,000 indirect and induced jobs in 2023, produced $14.1 billion in labor income, $25.7 billion in GDP and about $1.8 billion in state and local tax revenue.

Why it matters: Committee members were repeatedly told that the growth of data centers has direct implications for the state’s electric integrated resource planning, utility rate proceedings and local infrastructure. Levy and other presenters said timely investments in generation, transmission and distribution are needed to avoid long waits for customers seeking power.

Amazon Web Services’ representative Maria Saab told the committee that AWS will invest $11,000,000,000 in Georgia to build cloud and AI-supporting infrastructure in Butts and Douglas counties. "These investments are going to be going in Butts and Douglas Counties," Saab said. She described design choices AWS is using to reduce energy and water intensity, including purpose-built servers, free-air cooling where feasible and expanded use of recycled water at some sites.

Saab said AWS expects to use free-air (outside) cooling in Atlanta-region facilities about 94% of the time; she said AWS tracks water use in real time and has a stated "water positive" program to return water to communities. She also said Amazon’s global operations ran on a high share of renewable energy in 2023 and that AWS is designing equipment to be more energy-efficient and longer-lived.

Local impacts: Fayetteville Mayor Ed Johnson described a single local example. He told the committee his city’s work with the Fayette County Development Authority and a developer resulted in a large QTS data center campus. "In the last 6 months that QTS has been there, we have now received $1,130,000 of prop tax on the property alone," Johnson said, noting the city had earlier estimated much smaller property tax receipts from other potential uses of the land.

Resource tradeoffs and planning: Presenters and committee members discussed tradeoffs between water and energy for cooling. Levy noted that cooling designs vary by climate and client needs and that data centers can increase energy productivity when workloads move from many smaller on-site servers to centralized cloud facilities. Saab said AWS often uses evaporative cooling and recycled water where local conditions and permits allow; she said 24 AWS sites worldwide use treated recycled water for cooling.

Industry transition technologies: Speakers from equipment makers and manufacturers at the meeting also addressed the role of gas-fired generation and hydrogen as ways to add dispatchable power quickly. Mitsubishi Power representatives described gas turbine and hydrogen-blend testing and said blended hydrogen fuels are part of their pathway to lower-carbon dispatchable generation. Those technical presentations underscored committee discussion that meeting rising, rapid load growth will require a mix of near-term firm capacity and longer-term low-carbon options.

What’s next: Committee members framed the session as an introductory primer and said additional hearings and site visits are planned. Levy and other presenters urged coordinated, timely planning between state leaders, utilities and investors to match generation and transmission build-out with data center demand.

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