Aligned to move forward on Frederick County data center project after bill passes
Aligned Data Centers now plans to proceed with its Frederick County data center project at Quantum Loophole’s campus after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a bill that makes it easier for data center developers to install backup generators.
The Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024 allows certain entities, including data centers, to bypass obtaining a specific certificate from the state’s Public Service Commission to install emergency backup generators.
Aligned, based in Texas, was the first company to announce plans to build a data center on Quantum Loophole’s planned campus, on the former site of the Alcoa Eastalco smelting plant.
The company abandoned its Frederick County project in October after not receiving an exemption to install 168 backup diesel generators as part of its planned data center facilities.
In a statement, Aligned spokesperson Joanna Soucy emailed to The Frederick News-Post on Wednesday, the company said the passing of the Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act “paves the way for billions in potential investment and significant job growth in Maryland.”
“It also positions the state as a strategic hub for leading technology companies,” the statement said. “Aligned is excited to move forward with our plans in Maryland.”
Last May, Aligned received site-plan approval from the Frederick County Planning Commission to build a data center including 42 diesel generators.
Later that month, the company applied to the state Public Service Commission asking to be exempt from getting a certificate of public convenience and necessity to install backup generators.
The certificate “provides authority for a person to construct or modify a new generating station or high-voltage transmission lines,” according to the commission’s website.
Aligned had wanted to install 168 three-megawatt emergency diesel generators, which included the 42 generators from the approved data center site plan, as well as generators for three other future data centers.
The Public Service Commission denied Aligned the exemption and issued a provisional order that instead allowed to install diesel generators with a total combined capacity of 70 megawatts, effectively equivalent to 23 three-megawatt diesel generators.
Aligned rejected the provisional order and wrote in a letter that “nothing in the record” supports the assumption that 70 megawatts of backup power could support the project’s initial phase.
Aligned’s letter also said that the commission’s decision may have “sent a negative — and perhaps fatal — signal to the hoped-for data center industry in Maryland.”
Moore said in November he was “disappointed” with the Public Service Commission’s decision leading to Aligned pulling out of its project and planned to address regulatory uncertainty on data centers through legislation.
“This bill is going to supercharge the data center industry in our state so we can unleash more economic potential to create more good-paying union jobs,” Moore said during a bill signing on May 9.
Quantum Loophole spokesperson Steve Kearney on Wednesday declined to comment about Aligned’s decision to move forward with its project.
