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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Last year, 150 wooded acres off Campground Rd. were scalped of trees on the assumption that a new power plant would be approved to power a hyper-scale data center there. LG&E currently doesn't have capacity to provide power to meet its voracious needs. LCAN believes all ratepayers will end up subsidizing that plant we otherwise don't need.
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Currently, Metro Louisville's land-development codes don't reference hyper-scale data centers, so they can be located anywhere with industrial zoning, essentially without public scrutiny!?! The Metro Council last year asked Metro Planning to draft regulations to protect citizens before 2026, but nothing happened. See Calls to Action.
If all that weren't appalling enough, the Commonwealth [sic] of Kentucky exempts data centers from paying sales taxes.
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Who Picks Up Whose Tab?
LG&E-KU say they don't need new plants for us. 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, need less power than predicted or leave, we'll be stuck with the cost of the new plants plus a return-on-equity (profit).
Where's the Beef?
LG&E-KU admitted 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.
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