JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County leaders kicked off conversations around data centers Wednesday.
They’re looking at whether to pause data center development and what kind of regulations and consumer safeguards could be put in place at the local level.
We’ve seen data center moratoriums passed or discussed in Clay, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties in recent months, but up until now, the conversation had not reached Duval County..
“Are we going to address how additional energy is going to be generated?” asked Duval resident Melony Carr, who spoke at Wednesday’ member meeting called by City Councilmember Moné Holder (D-Group 1 At-Large).
“AI can be used for good or bad. So could guns, and we have regulations on that, as well,” said another speaker, James Shupe.
During the meeting, a JEA representative laid out the current playing field.
The representative of the utility explained there are already six small-scale data centers in the utility’s coverage area, each averaging about five megawatts of power consumption.
They also noted there is interest in building larger facilities here.
JEA has fielded at least 50 requests for data center development in recent years.
But as of now, JEA said it currently does not have the capacity to accommodate hyper-scale data centers, which typically use 50 megawatts or more.
Still, some council members like Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) and Holder, want to pass a moratorium temporarily halting any data center applications.
“Doing the moratorium for a certain amount of time, creating a working group that could explore hopefully future fixes not only to our code, but kind of waiting out Tallahassee in the hopes that they kind of get their minds right on this one,” said Peluso.
But Councilmember Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large) questioned the need for a pause, given the current grid would not allow for a large-scale data center to be built here any time soon.
“I think we can do the work long before this becomes a potential. I think a moratorium is just not necessary,” said Salem.
Salem advocated for a new committee to explore policy options on, not just data centers, but other new and emerging technologies, like Flock cameras and AI.
Holder said she’s open to those conversations but believes data centers warrant their own focused conversation.
“If a moratorium isn’t possible right now, we definitely need to put an effort in place to make sure we’re gathering information and as a council kind of be on the same page about how we move forward,” said Holder.
According to JEA, the utility is currently in the process of developing a large-load traffic policy that would offset any costs to consumers, should a hyper-scale data center be built in Jacksonville.
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