SF Report Says a 50-Megawatt Data Center Could Use as Much Power as 25,000 Homes

A new report on the potential impacts of data centers on San Francisco is likely to guide imminent decisions on whether to embrace a longer ban of the facilities, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The extension of a 45-day moratorium for another 10.5 months will be considered by a Board of Supervisors committee next week after the city analysis was released Tuesday. If the full board approves the extension, the ban could then be drawn out for another two years, the Chronicle reported. The report, issued at the direction of Mayor Daniel Lurie's administration, warns that large data centers could compete with housing, hospitals, businesses and other development for limited electricity capacity, while backup generators could contribute to noise and air pollution in neighborhoods already facing environmental burdens. It states that a 50-megawatt data center could consume as much electricity as 25,000 new homes, and that the city is already nearing its transmission capacity.

The city has three stand-alone data centers and no new applications pending, but in recent months several developers have explored projects, including in the shuttered San Francisco Centre mall downtown and on Michigan Street in the Dogpatch, the Chronicle reported. Planning records show that the facility at 200 Paul Ave. is the largest of the three stand-alone centers, with an estimated power capacity between 34 and 41 megawatts. Other server facilities operating as "accessory uses" inside other buildings are not clearly tracked. Unlike stand-alone projects, which have required public hearings since 2002, building or expanding accessory-use data centers does not require a special permit from the planning commission.

The report does not recommend whether the moratorium should be extended or prescribe new regulations. If the extension is approved by the full board, Lurie would need to decide whether to sign the legislation. Lurie's office declined to comment Tuesday on its position, the Chronicle reported. Among the options the report identifies are keeping new stand-alone facilities out of residential and commercial areas, and establishing a power-demand threshold, such as 5 megawatts or less, to separate smaller computing rooms from larger data centers that would need more review.