SAN JOSE — PG&E plans to build an electricity substation on empty land in North San Jose that the utility company would buy from tech titan Apple.
The potential substation project would be at the corner of First Street and Component Drive in San Jose, documents on file at City Hall show.
The plans for the power hub and a separate request by Apple were disclosed in documents on file with city officials ahead of upcoming municipal meetings to evaluate the matters.
By happenstance, real estate giant Prologis is eyeing the development of a data center at 326 Charcot Ave. that would total 514,000 square feet. The tech hub will require 99 megawatts of power.
“These are interconnected developments,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “But the public is being asked to evaluate them through separate approval processes without a complete understanding of their combined environmental impacts.”
The proposed data center site is roughly a half-mile from the potential location of the expanded PG&E substation.
Prologis believes PG&E intends to expand its substation capacity in North San Jose to an extent that would exceed the real estate firm’s electricity requirements at the proposed data center.
Oakland-based PG&E already operates a substation near the corner of First and Component, on the north side of Component Drive. That Trimble Substation can handle 115 kilovolts. Substations can “step down” voltage from high-power transmission lines to usable levels for business and residential customers.
The new substation, which would be directly across the street from the existing power hub, would include switchgears rated for 115 kilovolts, the city planning documents state.
“This piecemeal approach keeps the public from understanding the full scope of what is being proposed until decisions are already underway,” Staedler said.
The proposed power hub would also include new electrical circuits, breakers, steel poles and transmission lines.
“The expanded substation would become a part of PG&E’s larger existing electrical infrastructure system in San Jose,” city officials stated in a document prepared for upcoming Planning Commission and City Council meetings.
California agencies such as the state Public Utilities Commission and the state Energy Commission are the principal decision-making bodies for PG&E’s proposed substation.
Separately, Apple has requested that San Jose permanently close Orchard Parkway between Component Drive and and Atmel Way. The city would also vacate its right of way for the one-block section to be shut.
Cupertino-based Apple has located an unspecified number of workers in the office buildings that it owns at 2325 and 2509 Orchard Parkway.
Apple didn’t disclose its reasons for the street closure in the city filing. However, a permanent street closure at Component and Atmel would enable Apple workers to cross Orchard Parkway without encountering vehicles on that section of the road.
Apple owns the land that PG&E aims to buy. It’s part of roughly 86.7 acres that Apple owns at and near the corner of Orchard Parkway and Component Drive. Apple gained ownership of these sites around 2015.
The acreage that Apple owns is mostly empty land. The notable exceptions are two office buildings on Orchard Parkway that Apple owns and occupies.
Apple has yet to launch new buildings on its vast North San Jose holdings, even though the iPhone maker has won city approvals to develop a major campus on its land.
City officials would have to modify the development agreement it had previously reached with Apple so that the 9.7 acres that the tech company intends to “convey” to PG&E would no longer be part of the overall approved plans for the campus.
San Jose has approved the development of 2.8 million square feet of office and research spaces at Apple’s North San Jose campus.
“There would be no change in the allowed development square footage,” the city planning documents state. “Rather, the allowed development would be allocated within a smaller area.”