Smaller data centers have been part of the city including 6th Ave’s Westin Building Exchange (Image: The Westin Building)
As utilities are learning the true costs of AI, Seattle is joining a roster of cities around the world looking to step far from an era of incentives to make sure data centers don’t destabilize municipal resources.
Mayor Katie Wilson has announced details of her plans to restrict data center growth in Seattle.
In her announcement last week, Wilson identified the first phases of an effort to regulate “large-load” data centers — facilities requiring 10MW or more. The centerpiece of the plan is a proposed one-year moratorium on new or expanded facilities, a move being developed in partnership with the Seattle City Council to address “substantial public policy concern” regarding community health, economic resilience, and equity.
Council president and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth along with Councilmembers Debora Juarez (District 5), Eddie Lin (District 2), have introduced legislation to introduce an emergency moratorium on the siting of new data centers in Seattle.
For Seattle residents worried about their monthly bills, the mayor’s plan takes aim at utility costs. Seattle City Light is currently finalizing a new policy intended to ensure that the massive infrastructure upgrades and extra energy purchasing required by the centers aren’t passed on to customers. Alongside Seattle Public Utilities, the department is surveying national best practices and expects to propose new rate structures and legislation within the next few months.
The strategy also looks toward Olympia. Wilson’s office says it will prioritize state legislation for the 2027 session that would mandate clean energy use, noise and air pollution standards, and sustainable water usage for the facilities.
Locally, the city is preparing an economic impact report to study where these centers might land if the city moves toward permanent restrictions and how they might be integrated into emergency management procedures.
As Seattle is focusing on a one-year pause and rate overhaul, it is following a path blazed by Dublin, Ireland with more strict grid requirements) and Phoenix, Arizona in protecting residential rates.
Seattle currently hosts approximately 30 smaller data centers that have been operational for years. The most significant is the Westin Building Exchange on 6th Ave, a primary landing point for transpacific subsea cables. Heat generated from the exchange is reportedly piped to warm nearby Amazon buildings.
The mayor’s office says its efforts are focused on larger facilities being proposed and planned in the city.
Officials say public outcry is helping drive the effort to regulate the industry as a handful of large-scale data centers are being proposed in Seattle.
“The City Council received thousands of emails after reports that four companies have approached Seattle City Light about building five large-scale data centers in the Seattle area,” the announcement of the new legislation said. “These data centers would have a combined maximum demand of 369 megawatts, enough to power approximately 300,000 homes.”
According to the council, the five proposed large-scale data centers would be the first of their size in the area.
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