SUBSEA COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN THE FACE OF A CHANGING ENERGY LANDSCAPE BY CAROLINE CROWLEY AND ELLA HERBERT
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ower is one of the most significant constraints and enablers of data center growth today. It’s also a touchpoint for digital infrastructure’s community impacts. While there have historically been an array of reasons for opposition to data centers, from noise, land use, and unequal levels of local benefit, the energy issue is now a growing concern. Despite complaints from residents, data center development remains sought after in many communities due to the billions in tax revenue they produce (PwC 2023). However, the disparity between power demand and grid capacity poses challenges for both data centers and residents. Data centers are critical infrastructures that are only becoming more important as we shift to a digital economy, and utilities are struggling to catch up. This dynamic has significant implications for data center and community relationships as concerns grow over who will foot the bill for this investment. Recent moratoriums and a push for increased regulation in the sector reflect a strain between data centers and the communities they reside in. Sustainability adds to this another layer of complexity: will the new infrastructure that data centers require aid or inhibit clean energy goals? As development plans are made to accommodate our progressively digital society, will environmental considerations be at stake? In this article from Sustainable Subsea Networks,
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a research initiative of the SubOptic Foundation, we track the connections between energy usage, data center growth, and community concerns, and pay attention to their ramifications across the digital infrastructure sectors.
IMPACTS OF POWERING A DATA CENTER
Recent pushback for data center development is increasingly tied to limited electricity supply and subsequent price impacts. In some computing hubs around the world, grid capacity issues have slowed data center expansion, either due to government action or lack of infrastructure. Without careful and active management by utilities and industry members, the explosive growth of data centers can strain the grid and
lead to community resistance. For instance, Northern Virginia, the largest data center hub in the world, is facing power constraints (Telegeography, 2024). Dominion Energy, the largest utility in the state, issued a warning in 2022 that it may not be able to meet power demands in Ashburn, Virginia ( Judge, 2022). Since then, it has nearly doubled its data center capacity under contract and increased its forecasted spending until 2029 by 16 percent (Skidmore, 2025). In the face of electricity strain, Virginia is spending more and more to keep up with demand. In contrast, Dublin, Ireland serves as an example of a different government reaction to data center demand outpacing grid capacity. The city issued seven system alerts in a year, starting