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Some Redmond council members call for study of data‑center impacts after grid presentation
Summary
Following the grid‑capacity briefing, council members signaled interest in studying the implications of data centers in Redmond after consultants excluded high‑intensity data centers from the forecast; staff said inclusion requires project‑level coordination with PSE and directed follow‑up.
After the city‑focused grid capacity briefing, several council members asked the council to study whether and how to plan for data centers in Redmond.
Council member Parsi noted that data centers "consume as much energy as hundreds of thousands of houses" in some cases and asked the council to consider what kinds of data centers the city should allow or discourage. Staff reiterated that high‑intensity data centers and similar large industrial loads were excluded from the study because including them requires speculative assumptions about location and size; staff recommended ongoing coordination with Puget Sound Energy about specific project proposals.
Council members expressed interest in bringing the issue forward for study, noting recent actions in neighboring jurisdictions and the potential for large, concentrated electrical loads to alter planning assumptions. Council leadership said they would discuss next steps and how to pursue such a study in public forums.
