Computer data exists in a series of electronic blips. They are the 1s and 0s of a code that compiles, catalogs and categorizes billions of pieces of information.
Storing information physically takes up a lot of space. Think about how much room your cassette tapes, compact discs, DVDs, VHS tapes, books and magazines used to take up in entertainment centers, shelves and storage units. Today, all of them can fit neatly in your phone with plenty of room left over for pictures, apps and video games.
But there has to be a trade-off. For individuals, it’s paying for a physical backup unit or additional cloud data.
For larger organizations, it’s data centers.
Think of data centers like those storage units that are basically off-site garages where you can keep things you don’t want to get rid of but don’t have room for at home.
“Data centers are providing the digital future,” said Melissa Farney, spokesperson for TECfusions. “We can’t exist without them on a day-to-day basis.”
TECfusions is building a data center in Upper Burrell on a portion of the former Arconic property. Another, unrelated, is being built in Homer City. It is expected to be the largest in the state.
But the trade-off for storing more data is taking up power. Data centers aren’t passive retention spaces filled with filing cabinets. Their data is in servers and networking devices, which have to be connected and accessible. They require steady temperature control to prevent equipment from overheating.
All of that requires power.
“A single data center could account for as much as 30% of the current peak load in our entire service area in Allegheny and Beaver counties,” C. James Davis said Thursday.
Davis, director of rates, energy procurement and federal affairs for Duquesne Light, was testifying before the state’s Public Utility Commission. The PUC is looking into the impact of data centers on the state’s electrical grid.
It’s the right thing to do. Pennsylvanians are paying increasingly high rates for power, and, if one single data center can pull a third of the entire load for a provider, that’s something that needs to be considered carefully.
It needs to be part of the planning process for approving a data center’s construction. It needs to be part of the electrical providers’ decision-making in procuring energy.
And, perhaps most important for customers, it needs to be part of the complicated calculus of charging for electricity — both for the utility companies and the PUC that approves increases.
Data centers are an important part of modern business. They have to be included in the landscape like any other tool that makes the world turn, like sewage plants or water treatment facilities or cellphone towers.
But sewage plants are monitored for what they do with their sludge. Water treatment facilities need to show the numbers for what they are putting into the public pipes. Cellphone companies aren’t allowed to put up towers just anywhere.
Data centers must be likewise managed for the impact they will have on a grid already often overstretched and customers whose bills already pull them too thin.