New Hampshire, like much of the country, faces a quiet but serious infrastructure problem. Much of our electric system was built decades ago, for a different economy and a different pattern of energy use. At the same time, demand for reliable power continues to grow, even as responsibility for grid investment in a deregulated market increasingly falls on ratepayers through delivery charge increases.
There is a path forward that strengthens reliability, improves resilience and reduces pressure on households and businesses. That path is not driven by massive new greenfield projects or speculative infrastructure. It lies in repowering old assets, collocating right-sized data facilities next to existing generation and using private capital to modernize the grid in ways that directly benefit the communities where those facilities are located.
Data centers are often discussed as a single category, but that framing misses a critical distinction. Large hyperscale campuses designed for regions with surplus power and expansive transmission networks are fundamentally different from right-sized data facilities designed to integrate into existing infrastructure. In New Hampshire and similar regions, the latter are the models that matter.
When thoughtfully sited, these data centers can be renewable, grid positive and privately funded. They are frequently paired with existing hydro facilities, legacy power plants or constrained substations that need upgrades regardless of whether a new customer arrives. The difference is who pays. Instead of those costs flowing through to ratepayers, private developers can fund transformer upgrades, substation improvements, battery storage and standby generation as part of their projects.
These facilities also fill real gaps in a deregulated energy market. Independent system operators plan for bulk reliability, but local resilience — keeping power stable during storms, peak demand or equipment failure — often depends on assets that fall between traditional regulatory silos. Grid-positive data centers, by necessity, invest heavily in redundancy, on-site generation, and energy storage. When interconnected correctly, those investments strengthen the surrounding grid rather than strain it.
This is not theoretical. Across New England, developers are already repurposing old mill sites, underutilized industrial parcels, and legacy energy infrastructure, bringing new life to assets that would otherwise continue to degrade. These projects improve local reliability while avoiding the need for long transmission builds or new rate-based infrastructure.
The demonstrated path forward is clear: leverage existing generation, modernize old assets and align private capital with public reliability goals. Done right, grid-positive, green data centers are not a burden on the grid. They are part of the solution — renewable, privately funded and designed to reduce costs that would otherwise be borne by ratepayers.
The question is not whether data centers belong in the energy conversation. It is whether we are willing to distinguish between models that strain the system and those that strengthen it.
Drew Biemer is a former Administrator of The Site Evaluation Committee and current VP of Operations at a data center contractor headquartered in Austin, Texas. His 20-year career spans energy policy, regulatory affairs and consulting for utilities and energy developers. He is a 15-year resident of Concord.