Utility regulators in Minnesota recently ruled that a Certificate of Need is required for emergency backup generators at Amazon Data Services Inc.’s proposed data center in Becker, Minnesota.
In late 2024, ADS filed a petition at the Minnesota Public Utility Commission requesting an exemption from the requirement for a certificate of need for emergency backup generators needed at its proposed data center in Becker. Alternatively, should the Commission determine that a certificate of need is required, ADS requested exemptions from certain certificate of need application data requirements.
According to the petition, ADS intends to construct a data center in Becker adjacent to Xcel Energy’s Sherburne County Coal Generating Plant.
Because data centers require reliable on-demand backup power, ADS has proposed to install approximately 250 Tier 4-compliant diesel generators ranging in size from 250 kilowatts to 2.75 megawatts, capable of providing the data center's expected peak daily load of 600 megawatts in the event of an electric service disruption.
In comments submitted in the proceeding, a number of parties urged the PUC to require a Certificate of Need.
For example, the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, Residential Utilities Division (OAG), recommended that the Commission deny Amazon’s request to find that its proposed project does not require a certificate of need.
It said that Amazon’s exemption request “could set a significant precedent, at the early stages of data center development in the state, for how emergency electricity backup for data centers is treated in Minnesota. With rapidly evolving technologies, both in data centers and in the available means of providing backup generation, the Commission should not write itself out of the in-depth review of potential reasonable alternatives that the CN statute requires by granting Amazon’s request.”
Along with requiring a certificate of need, the Commission at its Feb. 28 meeting approved the certificate of need application data exemptions requested by ADS in its Petition.
