Director Operations Resilience

Northern Virginia data centre market: 4,650 MW live as Dominion's 40 GW interconnection queue becomes the binding constraint. The world's largest data centre market has essentially run out of near-term power. With vacancy at 1.8% and Dominion's queue backlogged past 2032, Loudoun and Prince William counties are rationing capacity. The world's densest data centre market hits a power wall. Northern Virginia now carries roughly 4,650 MW of live commissioned data centre capacity across Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax and Fauquier counties, more than the next three largest US markets combined. Vacancy has compressed to 1.8%, the tightest of any of the 50 major global markets tracked this cycle, down from 3.1% a year ago. The story here is no longer demand. It is supply, specifically electron supply, and the constraint has shifted decisively from land and permitting to Dominion Energy's interconnection queue, which now carries more than 40,000 MW of pending data centre requests against a service territory built for a fraction of that load. Loudoun County, the original "Data Center Alley" anchored around Ashburn, remains the core at roughly 2,900 MW live. Prince William County has emerged as the primary growth corridor, with 1,050 MW operating and another 1,800 MW under construction following approval of the Prince William Digital Gateway rezoning. Fairfax and Fauquier together add the balance, with Fauquier increasingly absorbing overflow demand as Loudoun's substation capacity tightens. Major operators and the consolidation of scale. QTS Realty (Blackstone-owned) and Digital Realty remain the two largest wholesale landlords in the region, each controlling in excess of 400 MW of operating capacity across multi-building campuses in Loudoun and Prince William. Aligned Data Centers, now backed by the $40 billion Microsoft/NVIDIA/xAI consortium capital structure finalised earlier this year, has expanded its Manassas and Fauquier footprint to roughly 340 MW live with a further 600 MW contracted for delivery through 2028. CloudHQ, Compass Datacenters and Vantage Data Centers collectively account for another 900 MW, while Amazon Web Services continues to self-develop the largest single share of capacity in the market, estimated at over 1,100 MW across its own campuses, a figure it does not disclose but which brokers and county tax filings consistently corroborate. Equinix maintains a smaller but strategically critical retail colocation footprint concentrated around the Equinix Internet Exchange in Ashburn, which remains one of the top three internet peering points globally by traffic volume, giving the region network density that pure hyperscale markets like Columbus or Dallas cannot replicate. Recent transaction activity. Capital markets activity in the region has been dominated by land and power banking rather than stabilised asset sales. Compass Datacenters closed a $1.2 billion recapitalisation in June 2026 specifically to fund substation construction across three Prince William sites. Aligned's regional build-out is being financed through the broader consortium facility rather than standalone project debt, reflecting a shift toward vertically integrated capital structures that bundle power procurement with construction financing. QTS secured a $780 million construction loan in April tied explicitly to a signed 15-year, 180 MW lease with an unnamed hyperscale tenant, believed by brokers to be either Microsoft or Meta given the load profile. Land transactions tell the clearest story. Raw industrial-zoned parcels in Prince William County with confirmed Dominion service agreements have traded at $2.1 million to $2.6 million per acre in 2026, roughly triple pricing from three years ago, and parcels without confirmed power now trade at a discount exceeding 60%, an unusually explicit market signal that power, not land, is the scarce input. Development pipeline and the power bottleneck. Approximately 6,200 MW of additional capacity is in some stage of the entitlement or construction pipeline across the five-county region, but only around 1,900 MW of that has a confirmed Dominion interconnection date within the next 36 months. The remainder sits in a queue that Dominion itself has acknowledged, in regulatory filings to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, cannot be fully served without new generation and transmission investment extending into the early 2030s. Dominion's 2026 Integrated Resource Plan filing projects data centre load in its Virginia territory reaching 15,000 MW to 18,000 MW by 2035, roughly triple the utility's entire non-data-centre commercial and industrial base combined. To meet this, Dominion has proposed accelerating two new combined-cycle gas units totalling 1,700 MW alongside expanded transmission from the PJM Interconnection grid, but permitting and the now-familiar 36-month transformer lead time mean the earliest meaningful new capacity blocks will not energise before late 2028. Construction costs in the region have risen accordingly. Northern Virginia build costs now average $12.6 million per MW, roughly 12% above the $11.3 million per MW global benchmark, driven by land premiums, skilled labour scarcity in a market building simultaneously for a dozen operators, and the rising share of liquid-cooled halls being specified for AI-dense tenants, which now account for an estimated 40% of new construction starts in the region against a 34% global average. Regulatory environment: from welcome mat to gatekeeping. The political posture toward data centres has hardened markedly since 2024. Prince William County's approval of the 2,100-acre Digital Gateway rezoning came only after a contentious multi-year process and now includes mandatory noise buffers, tree preservation requirements and a community benefits package exceeding $500 million in county-negotiated infrastructure contributions. Loudoun County has since adopted its own data centre overlay district, restricting new campuses to designated industrial corridors and imposing a minimum one-acre setback with vegetative screening, effectively closing off further expansion in several previously eligible parcels near residential growth areas. Virginia's sales and use tax exemption for data centre equipment, the single most important state-level incentive underpinning the market's growth since 2010, faces its most serious legislative challenge yet. A bill introduced in the 2026 General Assembly session proposed capping the exemption's applicability for facilities exceeding 100 MW of critical load, citing strain on the grid and residential electricity rates, which have risen 22% in Dominion's territory since 2022 amid rate cases explicitly linking the increases to data centre-driven transmission investment. The bill did not pass this session but is expected to return in 2027, and several county boards have signalled support for a state-level cost allocation mechanism that would shift more transmission expense onto large-load customers rather than the general ratepayer base. Community opposition, while less visible than in markets like Manassas Park or parts of Loudoun's western districts, has already contributed to the withdrawal of two proposed campuses totalling roughly 380 MW in Fauquier County over the past 18 months, part of the broader $156 billion in projects nationally delayed or blocked by local resistance. Outlook. Northern Virginia will remain the largest data centre market in the world through this decade, but its growth rate is decelerating from a structural ceiling rather than a demand ceiling, and that distinction matters for capital allocation. Investors should expect vacancy to stay below 3% through 2028 regardless of how much capacity nominally enters the pipeline, because Dominion's interconnection timeline, not construction schedules, will govern delivery. The practical effect is a widening bifurcation: assets with confirmed power agreements will command premium valuations and rents 15% to 20% above unpowered land, while speculative development without utility commitments faces a real risk of becoming stranded capital. Operators able to secure behind-the-meter generation, whether gas turbines or emerging fuel cell deployments, will hold a decisive competitive advantage over those still waiting in Dominion's queue, and I expect at least two of the region's top five operators to announce dedicated on-site generation capacity exceeding 200 MW before the end of 2027. Northern Virginia's dominance is not in question. Its growth rate is, and that repricing is already underway. Need bespoke market analysis? 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Compass Datacenters resubmits application in Shawnee County. Posted: Aug 28, 2026 / 06:37 PM CDT Updated: Aug 28, 2026 / 06:37 PM CDT TOPEKA (KSNT) - A data center developer has resubmitted its application for a data center project in Shawnee County Friday. Amy Conway with Compass Datacenters confirmed with 27 News that her company has resubmitted its application to Shawnee County for the proposed data center project. Compass Datacenters had until noon on Aug. 28 to send its application. Shawnee County staff labeled the initial conditional use permit (CUP) application from Compass Datacenters as incomplete in early August. We contacted Shawnee County on Aug. 28 for an updated statement on the application process, but have yet to receive a response. Compass Datacenters is looking to bring a new data center campus consisting of 10 buildings on just over 600 acres of land to an area southwest of the City of Topeka. The company said the new data center could bring hundreds of new jobs to the local area. Shawnee County commissioners approved a six-month moratorium on data centers on Aug. 13. Part of this decision included a measure that commissioners won't approve, deny or otherwise take final action on the Compass Datacenters application while the moratorium remains in place.

Topeka mayor weighs in on why data center meeting will be closed to public comment. Posted: Aug 7, 2026 / 02:01 PM CDT Updated: Aug 7, 2026 / 02:01 PM CDT Context: The above video initially aired on Aug. 6. TOPEKA (KSNT) - City leaders are forming a new committee focused on data centers while they also prepare to hold a special meeting focused on data center development in the Topeka area. The City of Topeka announced on Aug. 6 that its governing body will be holding a special work session at 5 p.m. on Aug. 19. This meeting is meant to give city leadership a chance to learn more about potential data center development in the Capital City and the annexation process of land where Compass Datacenters is hoping to create a new 10-building data center campus southwest of Topeka. Representatives of both Compass Datacenters and Evergy will give presentations to the City Council during this meeting. The special meeting will not be open for public comment as it is being labeled as an information-gathering session. Topeka's Mayor Spencer Duncan addressed community concerns about the upcoming meeting in a statement posted to social media on Aug. 7. He said Compass Datacenters' interest in bringing a new data center campus to unincorporated land in Shawnee County is relevant for city staff and leaders due to the potential impact it would have if it were approved. "A development of this size would affect our broader community, infrastructure, utilities, environment, and economy," Duncan said on social media. "It is therefore important that the Governing Body engage in the discussion, obtain information and hear directly from the organizations involved." Compass Datacenters filed a conditional use permit (CUP) with Shawnee County on July 24. While Shawnee County staff labeled the application as "incomplete" in early August, Compass Datacenters intends to re-file its application prior to an upcoming filing deadline on Aug. 28. Duncan said no vote or final action will be made during the upcoming Aug. 19 special meeting. He said the proposed data center campus, due to its close proximity to the City of Topeka, raises questions about how city infrastructure and services may interact with the project if it is approved. "We should not wait until such a request is filed to begin asking questions," Duncan said on social media. "Gathering information is part of our responsibility to be prepared to evaluate any future request carefully, transparently and based on evidence." Topeka's City Council approved a one-year moratorium on data centers during a meeting earlier this year in the summer. The governing body has the ability to end the moratorium if they choose to vote on the issue prior to its expiration. Duncan said the city will honor the moratorium while it continues to review permanent zoning definitions, siting requirements and other protections that may be necessary for future data center development. He also said this moratorium doesn't apply to areas outside of Topeka's city limits. Duncan stated the city's governing body is forming a Committee of the Whole specifically for data center issues. He said this will help to ensure these matters are addressed by the entire City Council rather than a smaller subcommittee and give additional opportunities for public comment. City staff are also working to obtain an independent impact study to examine the potential environmental, utility, community and other impacts that data center development might have on the local area. Duncan invited any members of the local community who have comments to share regarding data centers to make their voices heard at upcoming City Council sessions, reach out to City Council members individually or contact his office.