Shaping Data Center Growth for New York’s Energy Future

Faculty Advisor: Anastasia Roy

Team Members: Josh Argentine (Manager), Luke Piazza (Deputy Manager), Erica Albert, Alicia Carmona Cornejo, Heshan Chen, Maxwell Howland, Leah Ndumi Kioko, Kapil Kumar Narula, Ansha Pathak, and Anders Spittal

This project examines the emerging challenges posed by large-load data center development in New York State and provides targeted recommendations for NYSERDA to guide this growth in a manner that protects grid reliability, limits ratepayer impacts, and supports decarbonization goals. Analysis of the NYISO interconnection queue reveals that while total future load remains uncertain, data center development is highly geographically concentrated, increasing the risk of localized grid constraints and costly infrastructure upgrades. The report identifies three high-impact areas of intervention: promoting data transparency to improve system planning, catalyzing energy efficiency through advanced liquid cooling technologies, and facilitating demand flexibility so data centers can operate as grid-responsive resources rather than fixed demand. Together, these recommendations offer a framework for aligning data center growth with New York's clean energy and reliability objectives, turning a source of uncertainty into a potential asset for the evolving power system.

Learn more about the MPA-ESP Capstone projects.