Maryland Reboots Data Center Business with New Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act

While the new law directly addresses the concerns of the data center industry, it also has a positive benefit for other industries that require significant on-site backup power generation, such as hospitals and the telco sector.

A Quantum Shift

The Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act, signed by Governor Wes Moore on May 9, 2024, passed with a unanimous vote of both the Maryland House and Senate.

Quantum Loophole, who announced the signing of the legislation in a press release on May 13^th, is currently developing their first Maryland project, Quantum Frederick, a 2,100-acre development in Frederick County, Maryland that provides land, water, power, and fiber to data centers. 

Quantum Loophole will be a significant beneficiary of the advantages in backup power generation that the new law codifies for the data center industry in the state. The statute goes into effect on July 1, 2024.

As reckoned by Quantum Loophole, “The newly enacted legislation reiterates the state’s commitment to welcoming data centers, and fosters continuous innovation for businesses throughout Maryland.”

During Governor Moore’s May 9 press conference where he signed the Act into law, he remarked, “This bill is going to supercharge the data center industry in Maryland, so we can unleash more economic potential and create more good paying union jobs.”

Fast Track for Quantum Frederick

Quantum Frederick’s over 2100 acres of entitled, shovel-ready land for deployment of large-scale Internet infrastructure is served by transmission power from First Energy and their wholly owned distribution entity Potomac Edison at multi-gigawatt scale. 

Meanwhile, the largest capacity fiber ring ever constructed, at a capacity of up to 235,000 strands, interconnects the campus to Northern Virginia via underground ducts, designed to exceed the highest security standards as they cross beneath the Potomac River.

Highlighting the Quantum Frederick campus’s nearness to the country’s center of data center development in northern Virginia, Rich Paul-Hus, SVP of Public Affairs for Quantum Loophole, commented: