Quantum Group wants to convert an empty warehouse on West Emaus Avenue into a roughly 100 megawatt data center with fewer than two dozen workers per shift. The Allentown City Planning Commission held a special evening meeting in July 2026 after about three dozen residents raised concerns about noise, water use and the effect on electric bills. The developer has since filed revised plans that officials had not yet reviewed as of the most recent public update.
CDE Acquisitions is proposing six data center buildings totaling 5.1 million square feet on a 410 acre consolidated property in South Whitehall Township, next to Parkland High School. The plan includes a new electrical substation with emergency generators and more than 3 miles of new roadway. The township is reviewing a proposed data center ordinance alongside the application.
An operating data center site in Lehigh County, PA, mapped in OpenStreetMap and the IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas. About 146,000 square feet of building is mapped.
An operating Flexential data center site in Lehigh County, PA, mapped in OpenStreetMap and the IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas. About 49,000 square feet of building is mapped.
Air Products proposed converting its former 194 acre corporate headquarters property in Upper Macungie Township into a 2.6 million square foot, three building data center campus. The township's zoning hearing board rejected the request, and Air Products chose not to appeal, letting the deadline pass in August 2026. The company had also previously sought approval to build warehouses on the same property.
Power bills in Lehigh County
Most of the county is served by PPL Electric.
PPL Electric distribution base rate case settlement raised residential rates 4.9% from July 2026: about $8 to $10 a month on a $184 bill. The order is meant to keep new data centers from pushing their power costs onto residential electric bills by requiring developers to pay for all of their own electricity. This does not change anyone's electric rate directly, but it is meant to stop the cost of new substations and power lines built for data centers from being added to everyone else's bill.
PPL Electric had asked to raise its base distribution rates, the part of the bill that pays for poles, wires and local service rather than the electricity itself, by 356.3 million dollars a year. A settlement filed in March 2026 cut that to 275 million dollars, working out to about a 4.9 percent increase for a typical residential customer, whose bill would rise to roughly 184 dollars a month once new rates take effect July 1, 2026. The settlement also builds in a large load tariff for new data center customers, including minimum 10 year contracts and security deposits, plus an 11 million dollar a year contribution to low income customer assistance programs.
Every Pennsylvania rate case in dollars a month, with hearing dates: willmybillgoup.com, our rate case tracker.
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