SUN PRAIRIE, Wisconsin — The Sun Prairie City Council was expected on Friday to weigh a 12-month moratorium on new hyperscale data centre development, after the city's Plan Commission recommended approval of the pause this week.

The proposed moratorium would halt permitting for large computing facilities while city officials study their effects on electricity demand, water consumption and municipal infrastructure. Plan commissioners cited concerns from residents over strain on the local grid and the pace of speculative land acquisition by developers.

The Wisconsin move mirrors a broader wave of local action across the United States, where the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has driven unprecedented demand for computing capacity. Engineering firm Worley this week confirmed three US contracts to supply gas and aeroderivative turbines for data centre power, underscoring the energy intensity of the sector.

Utility planners and municipal officials have warned that hyperscale campuses can consume as much power as small cities, raising rates and complicating decarbonisation goals. Data centre operators, including firms building for cloud and AI workloads, have argued that the facilities bring investment and tax revenue while committing to efficiency measures.

The Sun Prairie decision is likely to be cited by other municipalities weighing similar limits. Local governments in Georgia, Virginia and Indiana have debated comparable restrictions as developers race to secure sites near transmission lines.