Looks to add 17MVA to support its data center campus
Utility Silicon Valley Power (SVP) plans to upgrade a substation to support an Intel data center expansion in Santa Clara, California.
Intel will pay for the upgrades to the Juliette Substation, with the company seeking an agreement with SVP for the project, per City of Santa Clara documents. The proposal still needs to be approved.
The Intel-dedicated substation was originally built in 1995, again with the costs of the two transformers covered by the company. At the time, SVP allocated 56MVA of energy capacity for Intel’s use at 3750 Juliette Lane.
SVP said that it "recently allocated an additional 6MVA after the refurbishment of the two original transformers and Intel’s payment of the load development fees for the additional capacity."
Now, the companies hope to increase that 62MVA by another 17MVA to a total 79MVA due to "the need for more computational power and data storage growth."
To help "expedite procurement," Intel will itself procure the third transformer, while the city will contract for installation of that transformer as well as other associated improvements at the site.
Intel will also pay load development fees associated with the increased capacity based on the City’s Municipal Fee Schedule, currently estimated to be approximately $10 million.
In the city documents, Intel said that "this upgrade is critical for ensuring that its data centers can continue to operate efficiently and without disruption." We visited one of the company's Santa Clara data centers back in 2019.
The additional 17MVA will be provided no earlier than August 1, 2029. Once completed, the Juliette Substation will continue to be owned, operated, and maintained by SVP.
In 2023, SVP said that it expected data center load to almost double by 2035, necessitating an investment in substations, geothermal power, and batteries.
