A day ahead of the hearing on the proposed data center at the former Pennhurst state hospital, developers filed a revised plan that substantially broadens the scope of the project, writes Evan Brandt for The Daily Local News.
The new plan “increases the data center square footage from 1.3 million square feet to 1.9 million and adds power generation,” posted activist Ginny Kerslake on the Prevent East Vincent Data Center Development Facebook page.
High electricity consumption is a major concern for data centers being proposed across the region, with many fearing that higher utility bills will shift some of the cost to consumers.
Patrick M. Cicero, a lawyer for the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, said electricity providers in the region are already facing a 6.6-gigawatt shortfall, creating a real risk of rolling brownouts this year and next.
Developers are addressing these worries by including their own power sources in proposals, though this approach raises additional concerns.
On-site natural gas turbines, for instance, create localized pollution and are far less efficient than “grid-sized generators,” said John Myers-Bangsund, an analyst for the Better Data Center Project.
Read more about the proposed Pennhurst data center and the challenges it’s facing in The Daily Local News.
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on VISTA.Today in March 2026.
