Energy companies react to IT infrastructure law

Talen Energy Corp., one of the largest competitive power generation and infrastructure companies in North America, and Cumulus Data, a Talen subsidiary developing a data center outside Berwick, applaud House Bill 952, which was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf.

The bill exempts data center IT infrastructure investments from state sales and use tax.

“We believe this legislation will allow Cumulus Data and other digital infrastructure companies in Pennsylvania to more effectively compete with the country’s largest data center markets in Ashburn, Virginia and other rapidly growing cloud infrastructure hubs across the U.S.,” Alex Hernandez, Cumulus Data CEO and Talen president, said. “The combination of this legislation and the low-cost, reliable, carbon-free energy of our Susquehanna generation facility enables Cumulus Data to offer the lowest total cost of ownership and carbon-free (environmental, social and governance) benefits to cloud, AI, and data center clients globally.”

Talen recently broke ground on the Cumulus Data center campus adjacent to its Susquehanna nuclear generating facility. When completed, it will provide technology training and jobs that will aid the local economy by increasing consumption of local goods and services and increasing tax revenue.

In the second half of 2022, the first data center is expected to be available for lease.