NC regulators approved 645 diesel generators for Amazon’s Hamlet data center campus, as grid connection delays push operators towards bridge power, fuelling community pushback over noise, pollution and cost concerns.
In sum – what to know:
645 generators approved – NC DEQ permitted 588 backup diesel engines for Amazon and 57 temporary “bridge power” engines for Duke Energy at Amazon’s Hamlet, NC data center campus, running until the site connects to the grid.
Grid delays are the driver – With interconnection waits stretching 4-7 years in the hardest-hit markets, operators are increasingly turning to generator-heavy interim power to keep build timelines on track.
Mitigation options exist – From Tier 4-certified generators to renewable/battery alternatives and earlier community engagement, operators have concrete levers at
their disposal to reduce pushback without abandoning bridge power altogether.
Early last week, it was reported that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ) had approved permits for 645 power generators tied to Amazon’s Hamlet data center campus. The total is split between 588 emergency backup diesel engines, intended to cover power outages, maintenance, testing and activation, and a further 57 “bridge” diesel engines for Amazon’s utility provider, Duke Energy, which will offer temporary bridge power until the Amazon site connects to the grid. In tandem with the rising tide of opposition to data centers in the US, the plans were met with pushback from the local community. The issue highlights the twin pressures facing data center operators, in the form of strained interconnection timelines and communities rallying against data centers, citing their impact on the environment and human health.
Timing matters
The pressure being placed on existing grid networks from AI-driven data center demand is palpable. According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), peak summer electricity demand in North America is forecast to rise by over 224 GW over the next ten years, with this increased demand driven by new data centers. But with aging grid networks coming under strain from the weight of this new demand, and waits for grid connection reaching up to seven years in the hardest markets, such as Northern Virginia, data center operators are now having to shift their attention to interim power arrangements to meet their immediate energy needs.
All this means that for data center operators, grid connection timing is no longer just a utility milestone, but a key feature of site diligence and planning. Sites with access to temporary and backup generation are increasingly important in helping operators determine whether contracted capacity is usable on schedule. But as Amazon has found out over the last week, this comes at a cost, with a rising tide of community-led pushback against data centers, over fears of rising utility costs, noise, pollution and resource-depletion, complicating the operating environment.
For its part, Amazon draws a clear line between generators designated for its own emergency use and those that form a part of Duke Energy’s requirements. “We planned to develop a data center campus that would operate primarily via grid power, with emergency backup generators to ensure uninterrupted service for our customers during rare transmission-level power service disruptions,” it said. Duke Energy, Amazon’s utility provider, separately applied for and received its own air permit for the temporary bridge power, a response, Amazon said, to a grid delivery timeline issue on Duke’s end. Duke Energy did not respond to a request for comment.
Bringing communities onside
On the community relations front, Amazon has been keen to stress its ongoing engagement in Richmond County. “We’re committed to building responsibly and being a good neighbor in Richmond County,” the company said, adding it had taken several concrete steps to improve relations, including a partnership with the Hamlet fire department, providing $200,000 worth of community grants, collaborating with Richmond Community College on workforce development, and organising an open house to enable residents to engage with members of the Hamlet data center project team directly.
In spite of these efforts, not everyone is convinced this level of engagement is sufficient. Caroline Cress, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, argues the Hamlet project lacked transparency, with the initial economic development incentive package negotiated between the county and Amazon moving at a pace that exceeded the community’s ability to weigh in. She also claimed that details regarding Amazon’s initial air permit application were heavily redacted. “Had Amazon been fully transparent and open to community input from the outset,” Cress said, “it may have been able to avoid or mitigate certain siting concerns, such as proximity to residences and churches.”
Mitigation options
The need for broader community engagement and outreach serves as an important lesson for operators navigating similar buildouts elsewhere. Beyond that, Cress highlights the role renewable energy can play in plugging temporary data center energy needs, citing several power purchase agreements signed by Meta in the past year to acquire capacity from solar projects across Texas, including the most recent Orca Falls Solar project in Navarro County. Google made a similar commitment back in April 2022, promising to power its data centers in Denmark, Chile and Finland with solar and wind energy, and revealing plans for a battery-storage facility to provide backup power at its hyperscale data center in Belgium.
Beyond the choice of energy source, Cress argues operators have several additional concrete levers they can pull to minimise community pushback and mitigate the adverse impact of data centers on the local environment. These range from the purchase of Tier 4-certified diesel generators instead of the Tier 2 engines specified in the Hamlet permits, to leasing bridge-power generators (and agreeing to permit the generators as a single major stationary source subject to tighter air-quality thresholds), and commissioning preconstruction air quality monitoring and air dispersion modeling, to provide residents with insight into the impact a facility will have on the local area.
For AI data center buyers, the Hamlet permits are a preview of a diligence question that is likely to recur, with grid connection timing now sitting alongside power price and land availability as a crucial factor that determines a site’s delivery capacity. For sellers, bridge power is likely to become a routine consideration with data center buildouts, as will the community friction that comes with it, with operators increasingly expected to manage both at once. Whether that means leaning further into renewable alternatives, tighter emissions standards, or simply earlier and more transparent community engagement, the lesson from Richmond County is clear. Managing the limitations of the local grid is rapidly becoming as much a part of the data center playbook as managing the data center build itself.
