New York Data Center Intel

Recent New York data center news

• Jan 20, 2026

  Switched Source Expands Grid-Enhancing Technology Deployments by 60%

  Switched Source reported a 60% increase in deployments of its Phase-EQ grid-enhancing technology over the past year, with units now operating across more than 10 utility service areas from Alaska to Florida.

  • Deployment growth & scope: Switched Source reports a 60% increase in deployments year-over-year, with Phase-EQ units operating in more than 10 utility service areas including New York, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington state; field data from operational sites shows 10% to 25% increase in load-serving capacity on active distribution circuits.
  • Device function & program support: Phase-EQ is described as the first distribution automation device that balances power flow between the three phases by exchanging real and reactive power; the company was founded in 2016 and the project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E SCALEUP program. A recent Georgia Power deployment is designed to reduce load imbalance by half and voltage imbalance by more than 30%, with the utility supplying substation-level data to track performance.
• Jan 20, 2026

  Ted Hearn: An Appreciation of Rocco Commisso

  Rocco Commisso, founder and 100% owner of Mediacom Communications, has died at age 76; his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan is scheduled for Jan. 21, 2026.

  • Announcement: Rocco Commisso (age 76) has died; a funeral is set for Jan. 21, 2026 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan (announced in the Jan. 20, 2026 obituary). He founded Mediacom in 1995 and remained 100% owner through the Commisso family.
  • Background & facts: Mediacom grew revenue from $855 million (2001) to over $2.22 billion (2022) and adjusted OIBDA from $335 million to more than $1 billion; the article references the federal $42.45 billion BEAD program and notes Mediacom launched Mediacom Mobile in July 2024 and focused on rural broadband (Iowa and nearly two dozen other U.S. states).
• Jan 19, 2026

  Constellation Completes Acquisition of Calpine; Groups Have 55 GW of Generation Capacity

  Constellation has completed its acquisition of Calpine Corp. from Energy Capital Partners (ECP).

  • Transaction completed: Constellation completed the announced cash-and-stock acquisition of Calpine (initially announced as a $16.4-billion deal a year earlier); the transaction has a total value of $26.6 billion including debt, and the combined company will have 55 GW of generation capacity and serve 2.5 million retail and business customers. The merged company will maintain headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, with a significant presence in Houston, Texas, and will supply power to data centers, advanced manufacturing, and critical infrastructure.
  • Regulatory settlement and divestitures: To resolve U.S. antitrust concerns the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Texas Attorney General required the divestiture of six power plants (four serving PJM and two serving ERCOT): Bethlehem Energy Center; York Energy Center (York 1 and York 2); Hay Road Energy Center; Edge Moor Energy Center; Jack A. Fusco Energy Center; Gregory Power Plant. The DOJ filed a proposed consent decree (the Division’s first electricity-merger consent decree in 14 years) to address competition concerns in ERCOT and PJM.
• Jan 19, 2026

  What's your AI footprint? Tech has an environmental cost

  The Arizona Republic reports research and expert analysis quantifying AI’s environmental footprint and the resource demands of data centers.

  • Main finding and announcement: Reporting highlights research (Cornell; Jegham & Li) estimating that AI growth could emit 24 to 44 million metric tons CO2 annually by 2030 and use water comparable to 6 to 10 million American households; study-level details include per-query and scaled impacts (e.g., 700 million queries/day ≈ electricity of 35,000 U.S. homes and freshwater for 1.2 million people).
  • Background and study details: The piece summarizes multiple studies and expert comments: on-site cooling and off-site power-plant water use, a measurement showing GPT-3 training used water equal to two Olympic-size pools, location-specific metrics (Arizona: 17-ounce water bottle per 16 GPT-3 queries), and recommendations from researchers (Jegham, Pengfei Li) that developers measure and improve model resource efficiency.
• Jan 17, 2026

  Data center news: DTE agrees to power terms for Saline Township data center

  DTE Energy accepted conditions from the Michigan Public Service Commission for special contracts to power an OpenAI and Oracle data center in Saline Township.

  • DTE Energy accepted commission conditions to supply power under special contracts for a proposed 1.4-gigawatt Saline Township data center involving OpenAI and Oracle; Attorney General Dana Nessel and others requested a rehearing of the Dec. 18 fast-tracked approval, while DTE reserved rights to challenge future commission decisions and confirmed aggregate revenues will cover service costs.
  • Related local actions and details: Lyon Township residents and experts flagged risks for a planned 1.8-million-square-foot site; Saline Township site work continues on a 2.2-million-square-foot project after rezoning of 575 acres; Lansing City Council proposed dedicating 10% of Board of Water and Light revenue from data center utility use to housing services (final vote expected by late February); Saginaw adopted a 6-month moratorium to craft rules and encourage development on post-industrial brownfields; Van Buren Township and Allen Park controversies noted (Van Buren: up to 3.6 million gallons of water a day; Allen Park: 26-megawatt proposal).
• Jan 16, 2026

  Meta Builds a Nuclear Supply Chain for the AI Era

  Meta has announced a package of multi-gigawatt nuclear agreements and related support to secure firm, long-duration power for its AI data center buildout.

  • Main announcement: Meta signed a set of deals that together could support up to 6.6 GW of new and existing clean power by 2035, including a 20-year PPA for more than 2,600 MW tied to three Vistra plants (Perry, Davis-Besse, Beaver Valley), an agreement with TerraPower to support up to eight Natrium plants (Meta funding for two Natrium units totaling up to 690 MW with delivery targeted as early as 2032, plus rights to energy from up to six additional units ~2.1 GW by 2035), and a deal with Oklo to enable a prepay-backed, scalable up-to-1.2 GW nuclear power campus in Pike County, Ohio.
  • Background and implementation details:DOE announced $2.7 billion to bolster domestic uranium enrichment over the next decade (including HALEU support); Oklo has a DOE Nuclear Safety Design Agreement for an Aurora fuel facility at Idaho National Laboratory; TerraPower’s initial two-unit site is expected to be identified “in the coming months”; many elements remain in early site-selection, licensing, fuel-qualification, and interconnection stages, with explicit timelines ranging from 2026 (Meta’s Prometheus data center) through 2032–2035 for advanced reactor deliveries.
• Jan 16, 2026

  US ROUNDUP: Duke Energy, Elevate, Fluence with BrightNight and Cordelio progress BESS projects

  Duke Energy has brought online a 50MW/200MWh BESS at the former Allen coal plant in North Carolina.

  • Main announcement: Duke Energy commissioned a 50MW/200MWh battery energy storage system at the former Allen coal plant on Lake Wylie, North Carolina, costing around US$100 million, finished under budget and ahead of schedule, began serving customers in November with final testing ongoing; construction of a second 167MW/668MWh BESS will start in May on a 10-acre site, and both systems are eligible for federal ITCs covering 40% (including an additional 10% for reinvestment into an energy community).
  • Additional project actions and timelines: Fluence Energy will supply its Gridstack Pro BESS (US-made cells/modules/enclosures/thermal systems) for BrightNight and Cordelio Power’s 300MW/1,200MWh Pioneer Clean Energy Centre in Yuma County, Arizona (PPA with APS; commercial operations expected April 2027); Elevate Renewables has acquired the 150MW/600MWh Prospect Power BESS in Virginia (scheduled operations mid-2026).
    • Energy Storage Summit USA: 24-25 March 2026, Dallas, TX; agenda includes FEOC challenges, power demand forecasting, and BESS supply chain management.
• Jan 16, 2026

  Soluna Expands Texas Campus With 100 MW AI-Ready Data Center

  Soluna Holdings has signed a co-development partnership with Metrobloks to build Project Kati 2 in Willacy County, Texas.

  • Partnership structure & project specifics: Soluna and Metrobloks intend to form a project company to own and operate Project Kati 2. Metrobloks will lead design, development, leasing, and day-to-day operations, while Soluna will provide site control, power entitlements, electrical equipment, and development expertise. The initial development for Kati 2 is a 100+ MW AI and HPC data center, as the first phase of a roadmap supporting more than 300 MW of total capacity. A target completion date has not been confirmed.

  • Background & related assets: Project Kati is a 166 MW wind-powered campus in Willacy County that broke ground in September 2025 and is being developed in two phases (Kati 1 expected to open later this year supporting Bitcoin hosting alongside AI/HPC; Kati 2 planned as dual-purpose for cryptomining and AI/HPC). The site has a non-binding letter of intent from a potential Neocloud tenant. Soluna’s broader portfolio includes the 25 MW Sophie data center, Project Dorothy 1A/1B (50 MW), Project Herdy (120 MW collocated with a 200 MW wind farm), and Project Annie (75 MW colocated with a 114 MW solar farm).

• Jan 16, 2026

  NY Environmental Advocates Urge Bolder Clean Energy Action After State of the State Address

  Environmental Advocates New York urged bolder clean energy action following Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address.

  • Highlights from the announcement: Governor Kathy Hochul proposed a $3.75 billion, five-year clean water plan; Environmental Advocates NY praised the water investment and urged the governor to commit an additional billion dollars for the Sustainable Future Program as part of their 2026 agenda.
  • Background and additional details: Advocates said the address lacked a near-term plan for utility-scale solar and offshore wind, cautioned against overreliance on nuclear (noting it will cost billions more and take years to deploy), and called for binding clean energy and storage requirements to manage rapid energy demand growth from data centers.
• Jan 15, 2026

  Microsoft Shifts to Community-First Model for Scaling AI Infrastructure

  Microsoft has published a new Community-First Infrastructure framework for how it will build and run AI data centers in the United States, and said it will begin applying the framework in new and expanding US markets in the first half of 2026.

  • Main announcement: Microsoft published the Community-First Infrastructure playbook authored by Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, committing to apply the framework in new and expanding US markets in H1 2026, pay full local property taxes on data center developments, contract for new generation and fund grid upgrades (including 7.9 GW contracted in the MISO market), and set a data center water-use intensity reduction target of 40% by 2030.
  • Background and concrete details: The framework pledges tariffs that reflect full cost of serving large data center loads (supporting rate models that charge “very large customers” for infrastructure), funding transmission and substation upgrades, adoption of closed-loop cooling and funding local water system upgrades where needed (example: work with the Quincy Water Reuse Utility), expanded workforce pipelines with North America’s Building Trades Unions and Microsoft Data Center Academy, and community AI literacy and small-business training programs.