Data-center surge strains local power capacity, industry speakers warn
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Summary
Industry presenters at the Hoffman Estates CRE breakfast said large-scale data centers demand power on the scale of small cities, warned that local grid capacity (ComEd) will constrain new campuses, and noted AI-driven growth and billions in planned investment near Bell Works.
Bill Shanahan, a data-center industry presenter, told attendees at the Hoffman Estates commercial real estate breakfast that modern data campuses require electricity on a scale few residents appreciate and that regional power availability, not land, is the principal constraint on new development. "One data center that's 48 megawatts is the equivalent to a small city of 43,000 homes," Shanahan said, describing a 48 MW building consuming roughly 35 million kilowatt-hours per month and explaining that building multiple such facilities quickly exceeds local power capacity.
Why it matters: Hoffman Estates is seeing major corporate investment near the former AT&T campus (Bell Works) and other sites, but Shanahan said developers first must secure large amounts of power from utilities. He cited roughly 8 gigawatts of data-center development under construction in the broader Chicago market and said many projects are preleased to major cloud and AI firms.
Shanahan outlined the scale of typical campuses, noting that a 1.2-gigawatt campus could contain multiple buildings each drawing tens to hundreds of megawatts. "It's not a real estate shortage, but we're in a power shortage," he said, adding that bringing new high-capacity service into Chicagoland can take years and that ComEd negotiations and approvals are central to whether a site can host a new campus.
Kevin Kramer, the event's economic development director, flagged local activity around Bell Works and data-center interest in town while introducing Shanahan. Kramer said several major deployments are already under way or planned nearby, and presenters noted large corporate names — including Microsoft and others referenced in the session — among firms expanding capacity in the region.
Shanahan also tied the surge to generative AI and other compute-heavy applications: as firms build larger models and provide more real-time services, the need for centralized compute and related facilities grows. He cautioned that—even where land and financing exist—utility interconnection and long lead times for power infrastructure are likely to be the gating factor for future campuses.
Next steps and context: Developers at the event said they are coordinating with utilities and local governments to resolve capacity limits, but Shanahan did not identify specific ComEd timelines or approvals. Attendees heard that project viability will depend on securing firm power commitments and that the village and utility conversations will determine which sites become feasible for conversion to data campuses.
