DATA CENTERS
Don't get stuck with the tab! Speak up!
Hyper-scale data-center developers are shaking down communities and states across the US for the most profitable sites for their facilities. Because those data centers use HUGE amounts of power, utilities are working hard to have them locate within their service areas.
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Worse, the Commonwealth [sic] of Kentucky exempts data centers from paying sales taxes. Only a few Metro Louisville land-development codes apply to data centers, though the Metro Council is expected to consider new rules soon.
In 2025, almost 150 wooded acres on Campground Rd. were scalped of trees and other vegetation on the assumption that a new power plant would be approved to power a hyper-data center.
LG&E doesn't have capacity currently to provide power to meet the voracious needs of a hyper-sclae data center. The Ky. Public Service Commission recently gave both LG&E and KU the approval to build TWO NEW gas-fired power plants IF the utilities need them. The PSC did not make clear what criteria must be met.
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You could be forced to pay for the utilities' $3B gamble.
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Who Picks Up Whose Tab?
LG&E-KU say they don't need new plants for us. (Even with electrification, their customers are using energy efficiency and solar panels to cut their power use.) They say they want to build new plants for the data centers they hope will locate here. But if the data centers don't come, we'll be stuck with the cost of the new plants plus a return-on-equity (profit).
Where's the Beef?
LG&E-KU admit they have no signed contracts with hyper-scale data center developers. Maybe it's a chicken-or-the-egg question, but existing customers must be protected from gambles. The average residential customer in Columbus, OH, is paying an extra $27/month due to data centers! We could experience similar injustice.
Technology Changes Quickly
Power plants operate for at least 40 years. New data-storage technology is trending toward using less power. Building two plants and keeping an old one (due to be retired) online for older computing technologies makes no sense -- unless you're guaranteed a profit, as are LG&E-KU. The last time they had excess capacity, they used it to justify killing rebates.
What's in It for Us?
The majority of the Kentucky legislature, seeking to prop up the coal industry, voted to give big tax breaks to this energy intensive, hyper-mobile industry that creates relatively few jobs and can downsize or move if it gets a better deal elsewhere. They don't even make convincing claims of property taxes going to our local goverments and schools.
​​Please keep any eye out for email from LCAN for:
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The dates and times of public hearings expected in the new year on proposed requirements on new data centers in Metro Louisville.
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A teach-in or workshop on data centers and nuclear power plants.​​
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