QTS Data Centers, backed by Blackstone, is developing a second, separate 1,700 acre data center campus in Salem Township, distinct from the AWS campus next to the nuclear plant. Local firm 4-3 Consulting organized the purchase of land from 96 area landowners for more than 500 million dollars, and on July 15, 2026 Salem Township supervisors unanimously approved road vacations for North Market Street, Moskaluk Road and all of Kiliti Road along with the final master plan and consolidation of the 180 purchased lots into the 1,700 acre parcel. North Market Street will remain open until a replacement connector road is built, a process expected to take about nine months.
The 4-3 Glenbrook Group is assembling a third and even larger data center campus in Salem Township, aiming to buy more than 4,000 acres from over 200 landowners for an estimated 1.4 billion dollars, with a planned 39 building campus and its own on-site power generation. After two earlier recommendation votes were voided or contested under the state Sunshine Act, the Salem Township Planning Commission voted 4-1 on September 24, 2026 to recommend the project, with developer Jack Sordoni offering concessions including 1,500 foot setbacks, a 65 foot building height cap, and free baseline water testing for township wells. The recommendation now goes to the elected Board of Supervisors, which is expected to take a final vote in October 2026, though no specific date has been announced yet.
Amazon runs a data center campus next to the Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, buying up to 1,920 megawatts of carbon free power from Talen Energy through 2042. The first data center on the roughly 1,200 acre site is already operating and Talen and Amazon plan to keep expanding it toward as many as 20 buildings. It is one of three separate large data center developments now under way in Salem Township.
NorthPoint Development proposed a 15 building, roughly 1,300 acre data center campus in Hazle Township known as Project Hazelnut, with Amazon reported as the end user. Township supervisors denied the proposal in November 2025, Luzerne County Court upheld that denial on appeal, and NorthPoint's further appeal was still pending before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court as of October 2026 with no ruling yet issued. While that appeal is pending, NorthPoint began offering about $10,000 in direct payments to roughly 4,500 eligible households plus a wider package reported at up to 165 million dollars in community benefits if the project is approved, an offer that has drawn criticism from local opposition group the Alliance To Stop The Line.
Brewster Land Company LLC, owner of a roughly 155 acre parcel at South Main and Yeager Roads, filed a substantive validity challenge arguing Dorrance Township's zoning ordinance unlawfully excludes data centers from its B-2 Highway Business District. The township zoning hearing board unanimously denied the challenge on May 6, 2026, finding the ordinance does not unlawfully exclude the use. Brewster's attorney said at the time the company anticipated appealing to the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, but no filing of that appeal has been confirmed in available reporting.
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Power bills in Luzerne 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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