Data Center View - October 15, 2026 - Stafford County approves 590,000-SF data center campus

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NEWS ROUNDUP

DEVELOPMENT: Stafford County approves rezoning for 590,000-SF data center campus. Stafford County supervisors have voted 4-3 to rezone 121 acres between Richmond Highway (Route 1) and Interstate 95 for a data center campus with two buildings totaling 590,000 SF, and approved a permit for an on-site electrical substation. The campus is set to use reuse water for cooling, and late proffers add a private-well remedy for two nearby streets and priority for local contractors.

ACQUISITION: Microsoft buys 600 acres for data center in Woodward, Iowa. Microsoft has closed on about 600 acres of industrial-zoned land in the Woodward Eco Business Park in Woodward, Iowa, for a planned data center. Cloteal LaBroi, Microsoft's government affairs infrastructure director, said the company will pay for all the infrastructure the project needs, including water and sewer upgrades, roads and electrical work. The city council must still approve a development agreement and later a site plan.

REGULATION: FERC approves PJM data center database but rejects curtailment plan. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved PJM Interconnection's request to build a database of data centers across its territory, covering each site's location, power providers, in-service dates, load ramp-up schedules and backup generation. FERC rejected PJM's proposal to temporarily cut grid power to data centers during peak demand, saying the plan went beyond PJM's authority. PJM expects data center power demand in its footprint to triple to 29GW.

ENERGY: Oracle trucks in natural gas to power data centers in Utah and Texas. Oracle has kept its Salt Lake City data center running for more than a year on compressed natural gas delivered by truck while it waits for a pipeline connection. The company has also reportedly used trucked gas at the campus it's building with OpenAI in Shackelford County, Texas. Oracle is now said to be weighing the same approach for its 2.5GW Project Jupiter campus in New Mexico, after the state land office rejected a 17-mile pipeline extension to the site.

READ: Campaigns spend $86.5 million on midterm ads casting data centers as a villain.

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