Middlesex County, New Jersey
DataCentersExposed tracks 10 AI data centers in Middlesex County, New Jersey — 3 operating and 0 in the pipeline, drawing 81 MW of reported power demand, led by Digital Realty Trust, Inc.. Its transparent data-center risk score is 0/100.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
- Project exposure · 24
- Power demand · 0
- Water draw · n/a
- Land footprint · n/a
What's happening in Middlesex County
Facilities here with disclosed capacity draw 81 MW from the local grid. Data-center load on this scale is the single biggest driver of recent capacity-market price increases — costs that flow through to every ratepayer in the service territory, not just the operators.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has the largest presence in Middlesex County. We resolve project codenames and shell LLCs back to the corporate parent wherever the public record allows, so the table below names who is actually behind each site.
Below: every tracked facility in the county, the active state legislation that names it or its county, and local news. Commissioner vote records arrive in a later release; the placeholders show where that accountability data will land.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 6 standardized 36 MW campuses in Middlesex County by 2035 — roughly 216 MW of new electricity demand and ~209 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 9 campuses (324 MW). For scale, we currently track 10 real data centers in Middlesex County (81 MW of reported power).
- Low growth5180 MW · ~174 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth6216 MW · ~209 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth8288 MW · ~279 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth9324 MW · ~313 M gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Middlesex County (the rest to mechanical/air cooling), a split it derives from local water stress and wet-bulb temperature.
These are modeled candidate sites, not announced or permitted facilities. PNNL's IM3 model places identical 36 MW unit-campuses at feasible locations under each scenario — it shows where demand could concentrate, never a specific parcel. Figures use a market-gravity weight of 50. How the model works.
Every tracked facility
| Facility | Operator | Status | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| QTS Piscataway Data Center Piscataway | QTS Realty Trust, LLC | 52 | |
| Digital Realty New York EWR11 Piscataway Township | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | 26 | |
| DataBank Piscataway EWR2 | DataBank Holdings, Ltd. | 3 | |
| Barclays Datacenter | — | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Equinix | Equinix, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| IO Datacenter Edison | Compass Datacenters, LLC | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| New Brunswick Data Center New Brunswick | — | Withdrawn | — |
| Open Data Centers Piscataway | Prime Data Centers | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Optimum | — | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Verizon Wireline Network Building | Verizon Communications Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | — |
County commissioners
How the Middlesex County board votes on each data-center matter — the rezonings, the abatements, the water permits — is built from public-meeting minutes and roll-call records. Know of a vote we should be tracking? Tell us.