Seattle City Light told KING 5 that three companies have explored potential data center development in its service area, though none have submitted service requests.
SEATTLE — Seattle officials are considering a one-year moratorium on new data centers after reports of interest in expansion that remain unclear in their scope and extent.
Thursday evening, Seattle councilmembers announced plans to introduce a 365-day moratorium on the siting of new data centers. The proposal will be paired with a resolution calling for impact studies on city infrastructure, water usage, utility rates, land use, jobs and public health.
Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5), Councilmember Eddie Lin (District 2) and Council President Joy Hollingsworth (District 3) introduced the plan.
“It is essential to put necessary safeguards in place for our communities, our infrastructure, and our environment from the impacts of large-scale data centers,” Hollingsworth said.
Seattle City Light told KING 5 that three companies have explored potential data center development in its service area, though none have even begun an approval process that takes several years to complete once started.
“We were approached by a small number of developers to study the possibility of locating within the City Light service area,” City Light added.
“The City Light process for connecting large load customers begins with a service request followed by design, engineering, and construction on both the developer and City Light sides before power can be delivered.
“The timeline is variable depending on a number of factors and would be several years.
“It is important to note that none of these companies have submitted a service request or committed to constructing a data center at this time,” City Light continued.
At that time, four companies were exploring five sites with a combined maximum demand of 369 megawatts. One company has since withdrawn, leaving four sites under consideration with a combined maximum demand of 317 megawatts.
City Light emphasized that these figures reflect maximum potential demand, not actual or guaranteed power usage, and may overstate the scale of the projects.
“It’s important to know that these values are maximum ratings. Sites rarely operate at this level,” a spokesperson said.
The companies involved include Prologis, Equinix and Sabey.
Separately, Pacland, a developer acting on behalf of an unidentified stakeholder, filed early-stage permits Monday tied to a site at 3625 1st Ave S. The company did not return phone calls and email requests for information.
The proposal is limited to the common step of subdividing land and does not include plans to construct buildings at this stage, according to an SDCI spokesperson.
City officials also said Seattle has not authorized or permitted any new data centers.
“My team is working closely with Seattle City Light, City Council and stakeholders to identify a range of long-term policy approaches,” Mayor Katie Wilson previously said, responding to “public alarm” about data centers.
The council’s proposal follows that concern.
Officials said they received “thousands of emails” after “reports” that multiple companies had approached City Light about building “large-scale data centers.”
Industry data shows Seattle’s existing data center capacity remains relatively limited. The city has roughly 30 small data centers, with total inventory reaching 155.8 megawatts as of early 2025, according to CBRE.
Industry experts say Washington remains a constrained market for data center development.
“Many of the state’s power grids are operating near capacity,” said Jane Blair, senior vice president with CBRE’s Data Center Solutions in Seattle.
The proposed resolution defines data centers as facilities that house servers, data storage systems, networking equipment and supporting infrastructure such as cooling, lighting and backup power.
A final version of the resolution is expected to be available for public review next week. Both the resolution and the moratorium legislation are expected to be introduced by mid-May.
Following potential votes, councilmembers are expected to consider an ordinance establishing 2027 and 2028 rates for Seattle City Light customers, including a separate rate for new large electricity users such as data centers.
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