Activist group blasts energy project related to Monrovia data center
An activist group, Citizens Action Coalition, has criticized an energy storage project in Pike County, Indiana, approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. This project is part of the infrastructure planned to support Google's data center in Monrovia, raising concerns about grid strain and potential eminent domain use for transmission lines. The group argues that the rapid growth of data centers is creating an unplanned crisis for Indiana's electric grid and consumers.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) recently approved a 130-megawatt battery energy storage facility, the Crosstrack Energy Storage project in Pike County. This project, developed by Invenergy, is intended to support Google's data center in Monrovia, Indiana.
However, the Citizens Action Coalition, an activist group, has criticized this development. Ben Inskeep, Program Director for the Coalition, highlighted that this project is only one of three identified by AES Indiana to meet the initial 390 megawatts of the Google data center, which could eventually expand to 1,200 megawatts. Inskeep warned that such rapid, unplanned growth of data centers is causing a "crisis on the grid," driving up wholesale electricity prices and the cost of new power plants, leading to consumer price increases.
Beyond electricity generation, local residents in the Monrovia area have expressed concerns about the new transmission lines required to connect the data center to the grid. Inskeep noted that AES Indiana has not finalized these routes and possesses the power of eminent domain, which he argues should be reserved for projects benefiting the public interest, not private companies like Google.