Plans for Massive Data Center Linked to Nuclear Power Spark Debate on Connecticut’s Energy Future

Francisco Uranga

Thomas Quinn wants to build a hyperscale data center — what would be the single largest user of electricity in Connecticut — next to the Millstone Nuclear Power plant in Waterford. 

The center would use more than 9% of the average power consumption in the state, enough to raise concerns among state lawmakers about the stability of the grid and serious questions about whether it’s the best use for electricity as the state transitions away from carbon-based energy.

A few weeks ago, Quinn, president of NE Edge, and his partners Christopher Regan and William DiBella spoke with CT Examiner about the project. Regan, like Quinn, is a real estate developer. In the 1990s, DiBella, a Democrat, served as the State Senate Majority Leader before leaving elected politics and becoming a lobbyist. None of the partners have prior experience with data center or technology projects, but Quinn was clear that the partners don’t plan to develop the project on their own.

“This is a big project. You have to bring in institutional money to do this,” Quinn said. “We have somebody lined up. It’s a very large company, multinational. We would be joint venture partners, but we wouldn’t run any of it. Once the big guys come in, they basically run the show.” 

Quinn declined to provide further details about prospective outside investors or partners, but according to industry experts who spoke with CT Examiner on the condition of anonymity, most projects of this scale are operated by companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon or Meta. 

According to figures provided by NE Edge, the project would require a $1.6 billion in investment and would consume 300 megawatts of power once operating — the size of the largest-scale, next-generation data centers used for high-density AI computing.

Given that Connecticut has some of the highest energy  rates in the country, an agreement with Dominion Energy  to connect the data center directly to the Millstone reactors is critical to NE Edge. Quinn called this “behind the meter,” meaning the developers wouldn’t pay the same charges levied on users of the electrical grid. But according to Quinn, NE Edge is offering to contribute $1 billion over 30 years to the state’s Renewables and Energy Assistance Programs in lieu of those charges.

According to Quinn, the deal would benefit Connecticut because much of the power potentially used to power the data center is currently sent out of state and not subject to those fees.

NE Edge has also offered to make an additional $1,440,000 annual payment to the state’s Energy Assistance Program, with a 2.5% annual escalator, and offer data storage services to the state at a 27.5% discount.

None of those contributions are yet part of any written agreement, but they were outlined by Quinn at a public hearing in March and are explained in a fact sheet provided to CT Examiner by the NE Edge. 

Quinn later said that these figures were proposed in writing in a meeting with Gov. Ned Lamont and would be formalized once the approval processes are concluded.

Locking in power

In an effort to prevent Dominion from closing Millstone, Connecticut agreed in 2019 to a 10-year purchase price for more than 50% of the energy produced at the plant 

According to a Dominion spokesperson, the company is discussing a lease and a separate power agreement with NE Edge. 

Quinn explained that his company is negotiating with Dominion to buy power currently sold on the open market, but declined to elaborate except to say that the price will be higher than in the 2019 agreement.

Jay Dietrich, research director on sustainability at Uptime Institute, told CT Examiner that an agreement between Dominion and NE Edge could be beneficial for the operation of the plant, given the stable demand promised by the center.

Dietrich said the main risk for nuclear power plants is being priced out of the market by cheaper sources of energy. The Millstone plant closure itself was on the table until the 2019 purchase agreement improved prospects.

“A data center locking up 300 megawatts of power will actually help keep the nuclear plant open, which will help grid stability,” Dietrich said. “And having that nuclear plant will reduce price volatility.”

Legislators move toward a study

The extraordinary scale of the energy required for the NE Edge project has prompted the state Legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee to approve legislation requiring a study of the impact on the grid. That report could be finished by July 1.

NE Edge opposed the study, which has yet to receive a vote from the entire State Senate and House, calling it a waste of taxpayer money. Quinn labeled the study an “opinion report” and said it may delay their project and result in a missed opportunity. Quinn argued that the data from ISO-New England, the organization managing New England’s electrical grid, showed more than enough capacity to supply the project, even during summertime peak demand.

“Missed opportunity for who?” replied State Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, a co-sponsor of the bill, later told CT Examiner.. “Lost opportunity for Google, for Microsoft? The beneficiaries are the world’s wealthiest corporations and their mega-billionaire owners.”

Bumgardner said data centers should be treated the same as any other industry in the state. 

Tax incentives

The industry has benefited from tax incentives approved in 2021 as emergency legislation, without committee discussion or public hearings, in response to an alleged opportunity to attract millions of dollars of investment to the state. 

At the same time, New Jersey lawmakers were debating a $0.0025 tax on each electronically processed financial transaction. Connecticut weighed the possibility that some of the Wall Street-related data center infrastructure could be moved to the state, but New Jersey eventually dropped the tax idea. 

The tax incentives remained, however, making Connecticut the only state in New England offering incentives for data centers; more than 30 states across the country have some type of incentive for the sector.

Under current rules, developers in Connecticut can apply for a 20-year sales and property tax exemption on data center projects with at least $200 million in investment, or $50 million if the center is built in a state-designated enterprise zone. The benefit can be extended to 30 years if the investment reaches $400 million, or $200 million in an enterprise zone. 

The centers would also be exempt from local taxes, but towns would be allowed to negotiate fees as part of a host municipality agreement.

Only one data center, developed by Cigna, has benefited from the legislation so far, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The Waterford data center could be the second. 

Picking winners?

The Lamont administration has split, markedly, in its attitudes toward the data center industry and proposed study.

Facing criticism that the government was picking winners and losers, DECD communications director Jim Watson said in a written statement that there were also incentives for other industries, and that the agency considers data centers a “backbone for growth in both established industries as well as rapidly emerging tech sectors.”

Daniel O’Keefe, commissioner of DECD, criticized the proposed study, suggesting instead that legislators consider how to support data centers to take advantage of the “economic benefits they enable.”

In contrast, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes endorsed the study, but presented it as a way to encourage the construction of new data centers in the state.

“We see it as an enhancement to ensure that there is a clear path to be able to attract data center load in our state,” she said. “We don’t want to be unprepared, and we want to make sure that we are informed about ways to integrate this kind of load in a way that is reliable.” 

The larger question

Underlying the data center controversy in Waterford are larger, global questions: Should the government incentivize these massive power-consuming projects? As Connecticut tries to refocus its energy infrastructure toward net-zero carbon by 2040, are data centers the smartest way of using green energy? 

Not long ago, data centers were seen as an opportunity to raise revenues and create jobs, but more experts and government officials have been questioning the benefits and shifting focus to its impact. 

In northern Europe, for example, there has been a reevaluation of whether the tax breaks given to data centers were wise policy, said Alex de Vries, a Dutch data scientist who founded Digiconomist, the research firm that created the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index. 

Among the countries that have reconsidered incentives is Sweden, which eliminated tax exemptions last year. Opposition to data centers is also growing in the Netherlands, where Meta suspended a project in 2022 due to political opposition over its high energy consumption.

According to his paper on artificial intelligence electricity consumption, Vries estimated that by 2027 the industry as a whole would require as much energy as the Netherlands.

“These facilities don’t create the number of jobs advertised and don’t pay that much taxes,” Vries said. “This is starting to be considered an opportunity cost. You don’t get extra business because you don’t need to be near a data center, and it consumes a massive amount of power that could be used for industries that are a growth engine for your local community.”

What’s in it for Waterford

NE Edge developers say the Waterford project would hire as many as 1,500 workers during construction, 190 permanent employees when operating, and 300 temporary personnel every three years for a year of refitting.

The figures are a small fraction of Connecticut’s labor market, however, compared to the amount of electricity the facility would consume.

Among the main supporters of the data center are construction unions and town officials who expect to raise millions of dollars from the project. NE Edge would be the second largest contributor to Waterford’s public coffers behind Dominion. 

Waterford signed a host municipality fee agreement with NE Edge last year, committing the company to pay $231 million over 30 years in lieu of taxes.

After signing the agreement, Waterford First Selectman Robert Brule touted the benefits to the local community. 

“This revenue will serve as a cushion to help us ease the tax burden for our property owners and help fund critical fire, police, school, public works, recreation and other human services our town relies upon,” Brule told The Day.

A group of Waterford neighbors, however, are determined to stop the project.

Resident Bryan Sayles, 63, said he first heard about the data center when he read a letter to the editor in the local newspaper in March 2023. By then, months had passed since the town’s first selectmen voted on the agreement with NE Edge.

After a few more months without any updates, Sayles decided to organize a meeting with locals to gather additional information.. Thus was born the Concerned Citizens of Waterford and East Lyme, which divided into working groups to tackle what it claims are issues with the project. 

Sayles said he spent months researching energy security and concluded that the data center would drive up the wholesale price of energy. He also raised doubts regarding who the real project investors are, as well as noise concerns. His biggest criticisms, however, are what he considers a lack of transparency from local representatives, Dominion and the developer. 

“Dominion is not acting as a good neighbor,” he said. “I’m fine with nuclear power, but the senior leaders in the company lack any empathy toward neighbors and the town, as we expressed our concerns.” 

Prior to the Waterford project, NE Edge proposed building a data center in Groton, drawn by the lower electricity rates offered by the town’s municipal utility. But neighbors objected due to noise concerns, and Groton’s Town Council ultimately voted against the NE Edge agreement.

Quinn and his partners learned from that experience.

The Waterford proposal eliminates the main sources of noise: backup diesel generators and the cooling system. Being directly connected to the nuclear reactors, the data center plans to use the grid as a backup, avoiding internal combustion engines. The cooling, according to NE Edge, would be accomplished with a closed air conditioning system, evacuating heat through fans on the roof. 

Quinn claims that the facility would be designed to minimize noise and meet a state-mandated 54-decibel limit, and that water demand would be limited to staff consumption and would not be used to cool servers. Independent experts in the industry who spoke with CT Examiner confirmed that there are engineering solutions to meet these requirements, although it would depend on the building design. NE Edge plans to complete a sound study in the next five months to obtain a building permit; once completed, the company can apply to DECD for a tax exemption.

Waterford residents opposed to the data center received some good news in January when the Siting Council rejected Dominion’s request to change the boundaries of the Millstone nuclear power plant site, a necessary step to build the data center. The council justified the denial based on concerns about the impact on the environment and energy supply, saying it needed more time and information to assess them. The decision was made without prejudice, which means Dominion can resubmit the application.

Quinn and his partners considered the denial unjustified, but said they are confident that the council will eventually approve the application. 

The Siting Council’s decision was celebrated by Sayles, who took it as a sign that neighbors’ concerns were being heard.

“I don’t think our pressure is going to matter to Dominion or our first selectman. They are indifferent,” he said.  “But we are hoping that the legal system, the state laws, will stop them.”

Contractors showing ‘robust’ interest in New London’s Coast Guard Museum

John Penney

New London ― More than two dozen contractors hoping to take part in the construction of the National U.S. Coast Guard Museum attended a “robust” bid opening event earlier this month, museum association leaders said Monday.

“We had contractors there representing nine trades, including those specializing in subterranean work and steel, along with those that provide emergency generators for these types of buildings,” said Wes Pulver, association president and a retired Coast Guard captain. “Those companies represented about 50% of the overall construction work we plan.”

Pulver said 70% of the project’s anticipated $150 million price tag ― which includes the creation of a pedestrian bridge projected to connect the downtown museum to the Water Street garage and building finishing work ― will be dedicated to construction of the main museum building.

The April 3 bid opening at the Garde Arts Center will now be followed by a second submission round on April 17 in which a small number of contractors – mainly those who handle wall-related work ― are slated to submit their bids, Pulver said.

Bids for construction of the 89,000-square-foot, six-story museum building and its associated interior systems were requested in late February by North Stonington-based A/Z Corp., which is overseeing the work.

The scope of the work at 1790 Waterfront Drive includes concrete foundation, skeletal steel and flooring, as well as exterior metal panel, glass curtain wall and roofing components. Companies are also invited to bid on elevator, fireproofing, plumbing and electrical work.

The project is being handled through a phased construction approach that began with site preparation behind Union Station about 20 months ago and is continuing with the installation of roughly 240 micropiles on which the museum will sit.

Bids for construction of the main museum building are expected to be awarded within 90 days, Pulver said. He said the association is holding off on releasing prospective bid figures for now.

“We want to make sure the bidders understand the full scope of the project first,” he said. “But those numbers are coming in similar to our cost estimates.”

The project is being funded through a combination of federal, state and donated funds. Approximately 6,000 donors so far have contributed $46 million in private money toward a $50 million capital campaign.

The walking bridge and interior museum finishing work portions of the project will be bid out separately later this year in the hopes of awarding those contracts by early summer.

A project timeline calls for the museum building to be completed in 2025 before being turned over to Coast Guard officials who will set an official opening date.

The bridge will likely not be completed until 2026.

Museum boosters, including city officials, are touting the facility as a tourism generator estimated to bring 300,000 annual visitors to the region along with up to $20 million in associated tourism revenue.

Groundbreaking held for South Norwalk School; will end decades of educational inequity for students

Kalleen Rose Ozanic, Katherine Lutge,

NORWALK — Construction has officially begun at what will become the first school in the South Norwalk neighborhood in over 40 years, mending a long overdue inequity for local students.

For decades, South Norwalk students, such as fifth grader Lincoln Almonte Martinez, have spent time riding buses to different schools across the city. 

“While I have enjoyed my years at Marvin, I like my principal, teachers and the amazing friends I made, I think about how things would have been different if I didn’t have to ride a bus across town and instead could have spent time attending school in my own neighborhood,” Lincoln said.

The new state-of-the-art school will fill a whole in the South Norwalk community that has existed since the late 1970s, when Norwalk Public Schools shuttered Nathaniel Ely School on Ingalls Avenue as part of desegregation efforts, a joint statement from the NPS and the city of Norwalk said.

Local and state officials welcomed the project at a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday, emphasizing the positive impacts that will come from the new South Norwalk Elementary School.

“The young students in South Norwalk, the young scholars, have not had a neighborhood school and not having the neighborhood school is a tremendous hindrance,” Mayor Harry Rilling said.

“What a day, not only do we have an eclipse, in many traditions eclipses are seen as an opportunity for change, and Norwalk is in the beginning of transformational change for South Norwalk,” said Alexandra Estrella, superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools.

The South Norwalk School groundbreaking came one week after local and state officials, including Gov. Ned Lamont, celebrated construction on the district’s concurrent construction project: the new Norwalk High School.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz joined Norwalk state and local leaders in celebrating the “historic day,” with the groundbreaking at the South Norwalk School site. 

“We know that partnerships between our state and our local governments have the power to transform communities, and we’re so proud to be part of the celebration of a $46 million investment in the future of Norwalk, in the incredible students who will have the opportunity shortly to attend this neighborhood school,” Bysiewicz said.

The $78 million project has a state reimbursement rate of 60 percent — putting a $31.2 million burden on the city and its taxpayers. Rilling credited the 60 percent reimbursement rate to the hard work of Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and the other Norwalk representatives to the state General Assembly.

“This new reimbursement formula is going to save the city of Norwalk about $29 million, having a 60 percent reimbursement versus a 22.5 percent reimbursement, which allows the city to do other priorities and meet like flooding,” Duff said.  

Last fall, Norwalk’s Common Council approved $4.9 million for property acquisitions for the school and road and flood improvements in the area.

Of that nearly $5 million, $2.9 million came from the Jefferson Marine Science Elementary School improvement project capital budget to purchase six properties adjoining the South Norwalk School parcel. The other $2 million goes to road and flood improvements near and on the school’s property.

With construction underway, the district looks to welcome students in the fall of 2025, according to the NPS construction website.

The new school is seen as a new anchor for the community, said Common Council President Darlene Young, who represents South Norwalk.

“We all know schools and neighborhoods create community and that’s what you need,” Young said. “We were missing that for a very, very long time — decades.”

When open, the school will accommodate a maximum of 682 students. In its initial year, the school will serve pre-kindergarten through third grade students. 

“I think Norwalk needs to understand how much this means to the minority community, to see the commitment of a city that cares about the people of the city, that they would invest into a school in the community that our students can be able to have less time traveling and more time being educated,” said the Rev. Roosevelt Ewell, senior pastor of Canaan Institutional Baptist Church of Norwalk. “This project, this movement, have come about from the hard labor of so many in the minority community.” 

With the 11.7-acre parcel at 1 Meadow St. Ext., Tecton Architects aims to create an educational environment with “breakout rooms” for small-group learning, bigger spaces such as a media breakout room, media room, gym, and multipurpose room for larger groups as well as physical and occupational therapy spaces. 

The city acquired the former Hatch & Bailey Co. property in 2022 for the new school. 

The plans for the three-story building also make use of the roof as open-air educational space.

New Haven gets $9.3 million to help connect trails from Hammonassett to Massachusetts

Mark Zaretsky

NEW HAVEN — Imagine riding your bike — or even walking — all the way from Hammonasset State Park in Madison through New Haven and clear upstate to Northampton, Mass., without having to contend much with vehicular traffic.

The city of New Haven is well on its way to completing a design that will connect the still-unfinished New Haven stretch of the 84-mile Farmington Canal Heritage Trail to the 25 miles of the Shoreline Greenway that could make this trek a reality.

The 4.4 mile link, which includes the long-awaited New Haven stretch of the Shoreline Greenway, is even longer than the city's 3.3-mile stretch of the Farmington Canal Trail, which is part of the East Coast Greenway. 

But it's got one big hurdle already conquered.

Money is in place.

The city has secured $9.3 million, including $7 million in federal funds and $2.3 million in state bond funds, to pay for it, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said. 

"This is a very exciting project," Zinn said during a recent online presentation. "It's many, many years in the making." 

He called it "an opportunity to create something very special here in the East Shore that connects these two great regional assets."

He said the regional connections are helping to attract those funds.

"This is the trunk line, if you will, that provides the intermunicipal connectability," Zinn said.

Zinn, who is charged with making it happen, aims to complete the design and any necessary permitting in 2024 and put it out to bid in 2025. He estimated that construction would take 18 months to two years.

As a resident of the East Shore, he's looking forward to taking his children to use it when it's done. 

And he has plans beyond that to link it all to Lighthouse Point Park, a trail through the city to Westville and via Long Wharf to West Haven's shoreline walkway, which currently ends near Sandy Point on the West Haven side of New Haven Harbor.

The exact route to Lighthouse Point is still being worked out, he said.

"This is a fairly ambitious plan," Zinn told members of the Board of Alders' City Services and Environmental Policy Committee Thursday night, adding "the route has been very challenging." 

He said they're looking for ways to connect the trail to West Haven.

"These projects don't happen overnight," he said.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend that the full Board of Alders approve accepting the funds.

Zinn and has staff have been working on a route that will connect with the Farmington Canal Trail near the Canal Dock Boathouse and wind east along Long Wharf Drive and East Street to Water Street.

There, it will go over the Tomlinson Bridge, then head down through the Port of New Haven area to East Shore Park, then along Woodward Avenue past the Water Pollution Control Authority and the U.S. Coast Guard station to Fort Hale Park, where it will have to cross Townsend Avenue, Zinn said.

From there it will work its way over to skirt along Burr Street and Dean Street, through a stretch of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport property into East Haven, where it will eventually link up with the existing Shoreline Greenway, he said. 

"We're building a network across the city," Zinn said. "If you live in the southern part of the Hill, connect through Long Wharf. If you're in Dixwell, connect through the Farmington Canal."

Additional links, such as Lighthouse Point, would require additional funding, Zinn said.

"We try to minimize land impacts, (but) were able to find a way to thread the needle," Zinn said.

The plan, including the route, is not yet finished and is still being tweaked in response to feedback from members of the public, he said.

The public — some members of which have been trying to make the project or one like it happen since the 1990s or earlier — is pretty excited about it.

But people also have questions and concerns.

"The route that Giovanni laid out did not connect to Lighthouse. It connects to the airport," said Chris Ozyck, a community and environmental activist who also happens to be associate director for the Urban Resources Initiative at Yale.

He's aware that Zinn and the city have plans to eventually build a spur to Lighthouse Point but said that connecting Hammonasset to Lighthouse has always been a goal of the Shoreline Greenway.

"In general, I think it's awesome," said Ozyck, who began working on the Farmington Canal Trail as a University of Connecticut undergrad around 1988. "My main concern has always been making sure that the route goes through the port area."

Ozyck said that while there are a few places where people would have to cross vehicular traffic, it would be relatively unimpeded. 

"Some people will use it for commuting, which is fantastic," Ozyck said. "Some people will use it for exercise and pleasure, which is also fantastic. It will be a tourist drive ... I think those are economic drivers. I just want it to really be first-rate." 

Aaron Goode, a member of Friends of the Farmington Canal and the New Haven Bioregional Group who spoke to the Board of Alders committee Thursday night, said he has been advocating for some version of the Greenway since 2007.

But the idea for an interconnected, interlocking set of greenways goes back to 1910, he said.

"It was a good idea in 1910 and its still a good idea today," he said.

Doug Hausladen, executive director of Park New Haven and a member of the Shoreline Greenway Trail organization, spoke to the alders along with Matthew Lieber, a New Haven native and East Haven resident who is vice-chair of the Shoreline Greenway Trail.

"We're excited about the possibility of the Shoreline Greenway Trail extending through New Haven," said Hausladen. 

Lieber said the vision it to connect Hammonassett with Lighthouse Point Park.

"We're looking forward to partnering with New Haven and having a New Haven volunteer team," he said.

Zinn said the Greenway trail would look similar to the Farmington Canal Trail through New Haven.

"It's really exciting," said Beaver Hills Alder Tom Ficklin Jr., D-28. "Hearing this word, interconnectivity, excites me."

Mayor Justin Elicker, speaking during the Feb. 29 presentation, called it "a really exciting project to someone that bikes, walks and drives around the city."

Elicker said the state and federal funds are what are enabling the project to finally happen, thanking state and federal officials.

Zinn said he thinks it can bring value to the neighborhoods it runs through.

"People want to live near these things," Zinn said.

Wilton gets federal funds to replace bridge that's been closed for years on Sugar Hollow Road

Karen Tensa

WILTON — A project to replace a bridge that has been closed to traffic for many years has received federal funding, according to First Selectman Toni Boucher. 

The bridge carries Sugar Hollow Road over the Norwalk River in the Georgetown section of northern Wilton near the Ridgefield border. The federal funds were released under the Federal Local Bridge Program, administered by the Connecticut Department of  Transportation.

Preliminary design work is expected to begin this spring, with construction likely starting in 2028, Boucher said in a statement. 

The 28-foot-long bridge, which is over 90 years old, was reduced to one-lane traffic in December 2017 after it was found to be deteriorating and in need of repairs by the DOT. The bridge had been rated “poor” since 2002. An inspection in 2016 found that the bridge’s exterior beams were deteriorating, and there were missing sections of the bridge’s rebar, which is used to reinforce the bridge.

In February 2018, the bridge was closed by the DOT until the needed repairs could be made. The analysis indicated that even with the reduction to one lane, "the bridge should be closed” for safety, then-First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice said at the time. 

According to a DOT database of bridge repair projects, the Sugar Hollow Road bridge in Wilton is due to receive $480,000 in federal funds this year, $100,000 in 2025 and $2.43 million in 2026.

The town will receive at least 80 percent reimbursement from federal aid for all three phases of the project — design, rights-of-way and construction — with the remaining funds from the state to cover 100 percent of the costs associated with the bridge replacement. The total estimated cost of the project is $2.92 million, said Thomas Reese, civil engineer with the Department of Public Works. 

The federal aid for the project was authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, which is administered by the Federal Highway Administration and the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Local and state policy encourages the release of early information on such projects and encourages residents to raise any concerns with municipal officials early in the planning process, Boucher said. Anyone wanting additional information on the project should contact Reese at the town Department of Public Works at 203-563-0152 or by email at Thomas.reese@wiltonct.org.