A developer is exploring a data center in Colchester, Connecticut that would run partly on a 10-megawatt fuel cell facility rather than pulling all its power straight off the grid, according to CT Insider. That detail is the whole story for a contractor reading this from New York: it's a power strategy, not just a zoning filing, and power strategy is what turns a proposal into a jobsite.
Connecticut is not under New York's building pause. Executive Order 62, signed July 14, freezes new data centers of 50 megawatts or more in New York State until the Department of Public Service finishes its environmental review — and it has no fixed end date. Connecticut answers to its own rules, and the one on the table there is a proposed requirement that large data centers bring their own power at 20 megawatts and up. Nobody's blocked anything yet; it's a proposal, and the Colchester project's fuel-cell plan reads like a bet that bring-your-own-power is where the state is headed regardless of how that debate ends.
On-site generation is a different trade mix than a straight grid tie-in. A fuel cell plant means process piping, specialized mechanical and electrical scope, and a fire-protection design that isn't the same job as wiring a facility for a substation feed. If this one moves to a site plan, that's the scope a contractor should be pricing — not the server halls, the power plant next to them.
CT Insider did not report a site address within Colchester, a developer name, a square footage, or a construction timeline — this is an exploratory plan, not a permitted project. The next real marker is a planning or zoning filing in New London County; until then, it's a company testing an idea, not a GC chasing a bid.