New York's Department of Public Service put a number on what it wants from data-center developers waiting out Executive Order 62: roughly $1 million per megawatt, paid into the communities that host these facilities, according to new guidelines the department released this week and multiple outlets covered September 15 and 16.

Here's the context. EO 62, signed July 14, paused new data centers that consume or can consume 50 megawatts or more, and it stays paused until DPS finishes a full environmental review — no fixed end date. That freeze has left every hyperscale project in the state in limbo, and this week's guidance is the state's first real signal of what a landing looks like: pay into the host community at roughly a million dollars a megawatt, on top of whatever local taxes and franchise fees already apply.

Do the math on a mid-size facility. A 200-megawatt campus — smallish by hyperscale standards — would be looking at somewhere around $200 million in community payments before a shovel goes in the ground, layered on top of land, power infrastructure, and the building itself. That's not a permit fee. That's a line item big enough to change whether a project pencils out in New York versus Ohio or Virginia.

For contractors, the guidance doesn't lift the moratorium and it doesn't start any clock. The 50-megawatt threshold in EO 62 is still the state's own number — not the 20-megawatt figure that keeps circulating in some coverage, which is from the legislative bill, not the order. Facilities under 50 megawatts, and any DEC application deemed complete before July 14, are still exempt and still eligible to move. Everything else stays parked until DPS files its findings.

What to watch next: whether this dollar figure survives into the final environmental impact statement, or whether it's a negotiating opener that gets whittled down under developer pressure. Either way, it's the clearest evidence yet that when EO 62 lifts, it won't lift for free — and any GC, electrical, or mechanical contractor lining up tri-state data-center work should be pricing that cost into a client's total project math, not just the concrete and steel.