Data-center power rules are finally getting specific—and suddenly everybody hates the fine print. Before we get into it: Singapore’s DC-CFA2 process has provisionally allocated 200 MW of new data center capacity, split evenly among Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres on Jurong Island. The question isn’t whether the capacity was awarded. It’s whether those provisional rights can turn into energized, leased, AI-capable facilities while meeting Singapore’s efficiency and green-energy conditions. This is The Data Center Daily. Florida is testing ratepayer protections, Singapore is testing renewable claims, and the queue may be pricing projects like roulette. Start with Duke. We're staying with this story: Singapore DC-CFA2 capacity conversion. Follow the show and you won't miss what comes next. Diana DiGangi, writing in Utility Dive:
Duke Energy Florida doesn’t want to set a new rate specific to large load customers yet, arguing that the provisions of its proposed large load tariff are sufficient to protect other ratepayers from unfairly shouldering a data center cost burden, the utility argued to the Florida Public Service Commission in a Tuesday hearing.
Duke wants the Florida PSC to hold off on a dedicated large-load rate, while leaning on a 20-year minimum service term and upfront CIAC. Good—at least somebody put real guardrails on the table instead of waving around a tariff and praying the campus stays busy. The CIAC is the concrete part: an upfront contribution toward the facilities Duke builds, plus a 20-year commitment if the load shows up and later changes its mind. That’s a lot more specific than the broad tariff-reform language we’ve heard from the organized markets. But Duke also wants to punt the rate decision. Walt Trierweiler, Florida’s public counsel, told Tuesday’s hearing the proposal misses the basic provisions of SB 484. So the utility’s answer is: trust the existing paperwork—with a very large deposit attached. The Florida PSC now has to decide whether those two tools really isolate data-center costs or just make the risk allocation sound tidier. The record needs tariff numbers, not a confidence exercise. Here's Markets Insider:
Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center platform, today announced the start of construction on a new, state-of-the-art data center in Glattbrugg. The facility – ZUR4 – will provide 15 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity across approximately 6,300 m2 of space, serving the growing demand for digital infrastructure in one of Europe's most important data and financial hubs.
Fifteen megawatts in Glattbrugg is a real build—shovels in the ground, 6,300 square meters—not another AI-campus mood board. But “high-density” and “state-of-the-art cooling” are still brochure words until Digital Realty puts operating numbers behind them. ZUR4 joins an existing three-site Zurich campus, so Digital Realty is adding capacity where the connectivity is already there. Sensible. Almost disappointingly sensible. Digital Realty says its European portfolio runs on 100% renewable energy. The local bar is high: ZUR2 holds the Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association’s first PLATINUM Plus certification, and ZUR4 will have to live up to that campus standard. Good. The 15 MW can earn that green label in the country where the facility is actually being built—not through a decorative slide deck. From FutureIoT:
Equinix has signed its fourth renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement(PPA) in Singapore in two years, partnering with Flo Energy Singapore to secure at least 11.5MWp of solar capacity from industrial and commercial rooftop installations across the country. The agreement includes an option for Equinix to expand capacity to up to 50MWp over time, supporting the company’s growing energy needs and long-term sustainability ambitions.
Equinix’s fourth Singapore PPA in two years is concrete: 11.5 megawatt-peak of rooftop solar from Flo Energy Singapore. The headline talks geothermal and SMRs; the deal on paper is local solar, with an option to reach 50 MWp. That option matters more than the glossy future-proofing language. Equinix is targeting 215 MWp locally by 2028, but 11.5 MWp is what it’s actually locked into with Flo today. The company says its Singapore portfolio would produce about 250,000 megawatt-hours a year. Fine—useful scale. But Singapore has only so much rooftop space, so the 50-MWp expansion clause is the number to watch. Compared with the Duke Florida fight we just covered, this is refreshingly specific: a counterparty, 11.5 MWp, and room to expand. Now let’s see Flo build it—and Equinix take the rest. Sharanya Pillai, writing in The Business Times:
The latest crop of data-centre operators awarded capacity in Singapore face a crucial test: whether they can break existing barriers to clean energy adoption – from price uncertainty to supply bottlenecks – and pave the way for the rest of the industry. On Aug 21, Singapore awarded 200 megawatts (MW) of data-centre capacity to four operators: 50 MW each to Equinix, Digital Realty, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres for new facilities on Jurong Island.
The Aug. 21 Singapore award is now a compliance test: 50 megawatts each for Equinix, Digital Realty, Keppel, and ST Telemedia on Jurong Island, with at least half their energy from eligible green pathways. The capacity is provisional, and meeting the renewable requirement is how they convert it. Good. Singapore gave them 200 MW total in one of the most land- and grid-constrained markets on earth, then made them prove the energy claim. Price uncertainty and supply bottlenecks are the assignment—not a footnote. Singapore’s 200 MW DC-CFA2 award now comes down to whether the operators can clear those renewables hurdles. Equinix has an 11.5-MWp Flo solar PPA with room to expand to 50. That optionality is tangible, but it still has to scale toward a 2028 portfolio target of 215 MWp. Digital Realty, Keppel, and ST Telemedia each face that same 50-MW obligation. “Renewable-powered” gets a lot less poetic when the regulator can hold up the facility. Here's James Bailey at Simple Thread:
Same turbines, same point of interconnection, same base model. Put that project in a different cluster and the number changes. It depends on which other projects are studied alongside it, where they connect, what the group overloads together, and how that market divides the cost of the fix. A developer can do everything right and still get a number that was mostly determined by their neighbors.
Same turbine, same interconnection point, and your upgrade bill can swing because three projects you’ve never met landed in the same study cluster. Developers call that a model result. I call it a very expensive neighbor problem. Simple Thread makes a useful distinction: a screening study can rank a point of interconnection, and an injection study can test one project. Neither tells you what four projects overload together—or how the bill gets divided. That gives the Duke Florida fight we just covered some teeth. A 20-year service term and upfront CIAC are utilities’ way of keeping a big-load customer from walking away after the infrastructure tab changes. You don’t get a clean interconnection-cost number until the cluster is settled. Until then, it’s a moving allocation across shared wires, shared constraints, and everybody else’s development timetable. Have feedback, story ideas, or corrections for The Data Center Daily? Email us at datacenterdaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We’d love to hear what you’re seeing in the data center world.
Links to every story are in the show notes if you want a closer look. Thanks for spending part of your Friday with us. That’s The Data Center Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.