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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchTwo completed data centers in Santa Clara, California, were reported in November 2025 to be awaiting enough firm electricity to operate. Digital Realty’s SJC37 and Stack Infrastructure’s SVY02A represent approximately 96 megawatts (MW) of combined critical IT capacity—commonly rounded to “nearly 100 MW.” The buildings are largely in place; the bottleneck is the utility infrastructure needed to energize them at commercial scale.
This is not evidence that Silicon Valley has run out of electricity or that AI demand has collapsed. It is a case study in how quickly large computing loads can outpace transmission, substations, interconnection approvals and utility expansion.
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What is sitting idle?
The two projects are separate facilities with different owners and reported designs.
Digital Realty SJC37
- Approximately 430,000 square feet, with city records describing a closely matching four-story Walsh Avenue project of about 435,050 square feet.
- Designed for approximately 48 MW of critical IT load.
- Associated with Digital Realty’s Santa Clara project, which the city identifies as having a generator yard, electrical substation and related site improvements.
- Reportedly completed or substantially completed but awaiting full energization.
Santa Clara planning records describe the project’s physical scale, while reporting by the Los Angeles Times supplied the reported capacity and delay context.
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Stack Infrastructure SVY02A
- Reportedly designed for approximately 48 MW.
- Includes eight data halls and its own substation.
- Was described as vacant or unable to operate at full capacity while awaiting power.
- Stack Infrastructure was acquired by Blue Owl Capital in 2025, according to the reporting.
“Vacant” should not be read as meaning that nobody is maintaining, securing or working on the site. The evidence supports a lack of full operational energization—not necessarily total physical inactivity.
Together, the facilities represent approximately 96 MW of reported critical IT capacity. That is not necessarily their total electricity demand. A data center also consumes power for cooling, pumps, fans, lighting, electrical losses and other mechanical systems. A Santa Clara planning document illustrates the distinction by separating critical IT load from mechanical load.
How can a finished data center lack power?
Data-center readiness has several stages, and completing the building is only one of them:
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- Land is acquired and planning approval is obtained.
- The shell, cooling systems, switchgear, backup generators and internal electrical equipment are constructed.
- The customer and utility agree on an interconnection and firm-service plan.
- Utility-side substations, receiving stations and transmission upgrades are completed.
- The facility is connected, tested and energized.
- Tenants install servers and the site ramps toward its contracted load.
A developer can therefore have a finished structure and even an internal substation while still lacking sufficient upstream transmission capacity or a firm utility connection. A backup generator is not a substitute for normal grid service, and an on-site substation does not guarantee that the regional grid can deliver the required power.
Silicon Valley Power (SVP), Santa Clara’s municipal utility, says data centers require significant 24/7 electricity and that it manages growth through system upgrades, redundancy and infrastructure-capacity planning. The more precise description of the problem is therefore a deliverability and interconnection bottleneck, not simply an absolute shortage of electricity.
Why Santa Clara became a bottleneck
Santa Clara offers several reasons for data-center concentration: proximity to technology companies, excellent network connectivity, an established data-center cluster, available commercial expertise and historically attractive municipal-utility rates. SVP says the city has more than 50 data centers and promotes reliable, comparatively affordable power as a reason operators locate there. Its data-center information page explains the utility’s position.
The same advantages attract more large loads. AI facilities can require much greater and denser power than traditional enterprise computing, while transmission lines, receiving stations and substations take years to plan, permit, finance and build.
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SVP’s December 2025 fact sheet lists a system peak demand of 746.5 MW. The two projects’ nominal 96 MW of critical IT capacity equals roughly 13% of that figure, although this is not a direct comparison of coincident system demand or total building consumption. A city climate-plan document has also estimated that data centers account for an average of 28% of community electricity consumption; the figure should be treated as a city-document estimate whose methodology and date matter.
Is the problem generation, transmission or permitting?
It can involve all of them, but the Santa Clara case is best understood as a combination of:
- Local system capacity: SVP says its expansion program is intended to double electric-load capacity.
- Transmission: Regional lines and interfaces must be able to move power into the area.
- Substations and receiving stations: Equipment must transform and distribute electricity safely at the required scale.
- Interconnection sequencing: The utility must determine when and under what conditions a large customer can receive firm service.
- Planning and construction: Engineering, procurement, land rights, approvals and construction cannot be compressed indefinitely.
- Load forecasting: AI projects can be proposed or contracted faster than physical infrastructure can be delivered.
Utilities also have to protect existing residential and commercial customers. They cannot simply connect every proposed data center immediately if doing so would undermine reliability or leave insufficient reserves during peak conditions.
How long could the facilities wait?
November 2025 reporting said Digital Realty’s application dated to 2019 and that the project had been waiting roughly six years. The same coverage associated broader SVP upgrades with a target around 2028, while another report said the Stack project was not expecting power until 2027.
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Those dates should be treated as reported milestones or expectations, not guaranteed commissioning dates. As of August 18, 2026, SVP had announced substantial expansion activity, but the available official sources did not independently confirm that SJC37 or SVY02A had reached full service.
SVP says it is pursuing a $459 million system-expansion program designed to double electric-load capacity. It has also broken ground on regional transmission work expected to provide approximately 1,000 MW of new transmission capacity across the broader South Bay system. These projects could ease the constraint, but they do not automatically establish that either specific facility is operating.
The financial cost of waiting
A finished but unenergized data center is not the same thing as a revenue-producing data center. Capital may already be tied up in land, construction, cooling equipment, switchgear, generators, financing and security, while rental or colocation revenue is delayed.
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There are additional commercial risks:
- Customers may move to a market with faster power availability.
- Lease commencement dates may be renegotiated or deferred.
- Interest and carrying costs continue during the delay.
- Newer AI accelerators may require different rack density, cooling or electrical designs by the time power arrives.
- A project could be worth more as a powered site than as a completed shell.
Digital Realty reportedly cited an average U.S. cost of about $13.3 million per MW for fully outfitted facilities, with Silicon Valley costs higher. Applied mechanically to 96 MW, that would exceed $1.27 billion. This is only an illustrative calculation based on a broad benchmark—not a verified cost of SJC37 and SVY02A.
Who pays for the grid upgrades?
SVP says it operates under a cost-of-service model. According to the city’s account of the utility’s position, data centers pay for infrastructure directly connecting them, as well as their share of system improvements that serve broader purposes such as capacity expansion and replacement of aging infrastructure.
That creates a more complicated question than whether residents or data centers pay for everything. Customer-specific interconnection costs may be assigned to an individual customer, while shared upgrades may be allocated among beneficiaries under utility rules. Whether ratepayers ultimately bear excessive risk depends on tariffs, cost-allocation methods, capital recovery and whether forecast demand materializes.
SVP argues that large data centers provide steady 24/7 demand that can help spread fixed system costs. That is the utility’s position, not proof that every customer benefits financially. The opposite claim—that data centers are necessarily raising household bills—also requires evidence about actual rates and cost allocation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does this mean for residents and other businesses?
Potential local costs include transmission and substation construction, land-use conflicts, noise, backup-generator emissions, cooling-related water concerns and competition for scarce grid capacity. Reserving industrial capacity for data centers can also create an opportunity cost if manufacturers or other employers are unable to secure service.
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The balance depends on project-specific design, utility rules and public decisions. It cannot be determined from the reported 96 MW figure alone.
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Can flexible power solve the problem?
Possible ways to reduce the pressure include:
- Phased energization rather than immediate full-load service.
- Battery storage and renewable generation paired with storage.
- Behind-the-meter generation, subject to emissions, fuel, noise and permitting constraints.
- Demand response and interruptible service.
- Shifting flexible AI-training or batch workloads to periods of lower grid stress.
- Regional transmission and receiving-station upgrades.
- Smaller, staged deployments instead of one immediate 48 MW load.
In April 2026, SVP announced a pilot with Emerald AI to test “flexible data centers” that adjust electricity consumption in response to grid conditions without disrupting critical AI workloads. That is a promising experiment, but it is not a demonstrated solution for the two facilities and cannot create transmission capacity by itself. Batteries also do not automatically provide continuous, multi-day energy, and latency-sensitive workloads may not be freely shiftable.
Why developers are looking elsewhere
The Santa Clara experience encourages developers to consider Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Nevada and other regions offering different combinations of land, generation, transmission, taxes, permitting and utility capacity. Relocation is not friction-free: alternative markets may have connectivity, labor, water, weather, tax, permitting or latency disadvantages, and new power infrastructure may still be incomplete.
The broader lesson is that a “powered site” is more valuable than a merely completed building. Site-selection decisions increasingly depend on a credible path to firm electricity, not just land, permits and fiber.
Does this prove the AI data-center boom is collapsing?
No. The evidence points to infrastructure and execution constraints, not disappearing AI demand. Developers can respond by moving projects, delaying deployments, negotiating flexible service or using different power arrangements.
Two unpowered facilities demonstrate that demand forecasts, construction schedules and utility timelines can diverge sharply. They do not establish that AI demand is fading, that the buildings will never be used or that the AI sector is a bubble.
For investors and businesses, the relevant distinction is between planned capacity, constructed capacity, energized capacity and revenue-producing capacity. Treating those as interchangeable can substantially overstate the infrastructure actually available.
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