Despite Seattle passing a data-center moratorium following a torrent of public backlash, there are still several large projects moving forward within the city.
A nine-story facility in Sodo and a six-story project downtown fall under the city’s definition of a “large” data center but are moving forward because they submitted permit applications before the moratorium, so the temporary ban doesn’t apply to them.
Together, they could add a considerable amount of electricity demand to the city’s grid — nearly 100 megawatts of peak demand. The city uses about 1,100 megawatts on average and up to 2,000 at peak. But Seattle City Light has developed a framework for serving large data centers to limit their impact on other customers, including requiring them to turn off at certain times.
After The Seattle Times reported that four developers proposed five new large data centers within the city utility’s service area that could together consume 369 megawatts, the city received more than 54,000 messages of “intense public alarm,” according to the mayor’s office. Two of those companies withdrew their plans and the City Council passed a one-year moratorium on new projects.
Seattle has around 30 data centers already, but they’re mostly small, and altogether consumed about 5% of the city’s electricity last year.
Seattle City Light staff members said they heard as recently as last month that Equinix, a California-based data-center developer, was advancing plans to build a 54 megawatt facility in Sodo.
The city submitted environmental permits to the state in June for the project, describing it as a nine-story data center with parking for 264 vehicles.
According to a March study by the city’s utility, the project would need a new dedicated transmission connection, a new Equinix-owned substation and upgrades to the existing substation in Sodo to serve it. City Light estimated that would cost about $7.7 million plus about $450,000 in shared mitigation costs, not including Equinix’s own on-site substation.
Digital Realty, an Austin, Texas-based company, submitted a land-use permit application with the city to build a six-story data center downtown just in the nick of time, at the end of May, less than two weeks before City Council members approved the moratorium. Like the Sodo project, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections said “this proposal is also vested to the previous regulations and not subject to the existing moratorium.”
Seattle City Light said developers requested 40 megavolt-amperes (a unit that is usually similar to megawatts) of electricity service, which puts it well within the city’s threshold for “large” data centers.
Prologis, another California-based company, had proposed two of the original five large projects: a 120 megawatt data center in Sodo and a 75 megawatt one in Tukwila but within Seattle City Light’s service area. City Light said Prologis has not submitted a service request nor withdrawn its interest, but that staff remained in contact with the company about its two potential projects, both of which are still exploratory.
Seattle City Light has developed a framework to protect other customers from the impact of large data centers. Some of these provisions are common terms utilities around the country are adopting for large data centers, like requiring them to pay higher rates and paying for all the grid infrastructure and power supply to serve them, but Seattle goes further and mandates them to reduce their energy use during peak demand, one of the stronger, more controversial protections available.
Washington lawmakers and utility regulators are also considering similar measures. The Utilities and Transportation Commission is developing guidance for investor-owned utilities on large-load rates and lawmakers have said they may revive legislation aimed at ensuring large data centers do not strain the grid or shift costs onto other customers.
© 2026 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
