MS “Data center power costs will not be passed on to residents”

Microsoft (MS) confirmed its policy to self-procure data center power rather than relying on government subsidies or passing the cost on to local residents.

Noel Walsh, president of Microsoft's cloud operations and innovation division, said at the BloombergNEF conference on the 11th (local time), "We don't want other customers to shoulder the cost of our growth. We will bear the full cost ourselves."

This position came as the issue of regulation of data center expansion emerged as a pending issue as the Democratic Party gained a majority in the Senate and House of Representatives in the U.S. midterm elections.

MS will have its own power generation facilities for a 2.7 gigawatt (GW) ultra-large data center being built in western Texas. The two companies agreed that oil major Chevron would build a natural gas power plant exclusively for this data center and supply power.

The project has been put on hold due to Gov. Greg Abbott's moratorium on new data center approvals ahead of the midterm elections, and Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged to further strengthen licensing standards.

Chevron, however, still aims to have the project begin operation in 2028 and be fully operational by 2031.

“Projects that do not provide a net benefit to the community are bound to fail,” said Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron’s new energy division. “This project will bring jobs and stable tax revenue to West Texas.”