From left, Bargersville Town Council Member Andrew Greenwood, Morgan County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Mike Dellinger, and Duke Energy’s Economic Development Managing Director for the Midwest Erin Schneider listen to a panelists remarks about data centers during a Central Indiana Regional Development Authority meeting Wednesday at Indiana University Indianapolis. Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS — As Johnson County leaders say there’s no real interest in data centers locally, they got a fact-focused explainer of the facilities Wednesday.
Leaders from across Central Indiana gathered on the Indiana University Indianapolis campus to hear a discussion on data centers hosted by the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority, or CIRDA, a collaborative body designed to create a more unified, strategically aligned and developed region. Thirty-two political subdivisions are members — including Bargersville, Franklin, Greenwood, Whiteland and Indianapolis.
Wednesday’s panel focused on examining data center requirements, benefits and challenges they present. Government leaders, energy sector representatives and a land use expert were asked questions by moderator and Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen, CIRDA’s vice-chair. Bargersville Town Council member Andrew Greenwood, a member of CIRDA’s executive committee and a developer, was among the panelists.
The goal was to give local leaders facts about data centers, the importance of not having taxpayers foot the bill for them and the need for planning, collaboration and communication between everyone involved, including residents. Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett, chair of CIRDA’s energy committee, helped spearhead planning for the panel, Jensen said.
Overview of processes
Chad Sweeney, a senior principal at Ginovus, a site selection firm that works with developers, explained the development process for data centers. While artificial intelligence data typically comes to mind when it comes to the data center boom, the centers do more than that, including storing data from social media sites, he said.
“It’s hard to really get your arms around the scope and scale of it because the data,” Sweeney said. ‘There’s a lot of projections out there, but the best I’ve seen somewhere around $500 million investment in 2025, and we’re growing at 30 or 40% a year.”
When it comes to location, data center developers are often times “pulling up Google Earth” to find available land near power substations and asking utilities how much capacity they have, said Justin Forshey, director of energy solutions and business development for Centerpoint Energy’s Indiana districts. Utilities are now having to do a lot of “prospective customer due diligence” on the front end that they would typically rely on state and local governments for, he said.
The data center boom is “unprecedented,” requiring utilities to come together to develop strategies and addresses issues and challenges, said Erin Schneider, Duke Energy’s Economic Development Managing Director for the Midwest.
Referencing Forshey’s comments, Schneider added that Duke Energy changed its process to require developers to send them a letter from a local economic development corporation and to inform them if the landowner is involved and aware of what’s happening. They also need to know who they’re talking to and whether the project is financially sustainable before the utility makes investments, she said.
Kelley Kam, vice president of regulatory affairs and policy for Duke Energy Indiana, said electric utilities typically do a 20-year integrated resource plan for upgrades, which is updated every three years.
This speed doesn’t really work with data centers, so she was appreciative of House Enrolled Act 1007, which gives utilities a new streamlined option to come to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to expedite and approve a generation plan. The bill also addresses the specific risks larger customers pose, adding protections so the risks don’t fall on other ratepayers, she said.
Like electric utilities, water utilities also have integrated resource plans, but for 50 years, said Ed Bukovac, vice president of water operations for Citizens Energy. He added Citizens’ approach is to also make sure they don’t burden customers or compromise reliability.
What should be kept in mind
Data center developers should be prepared to fund utility infrastructure, Sweeney said. Centers should also be near compatible uses, with Sweeney noting community concerns tend to focus on sites that take over farmland or are in an area not identified for that type of development in a city’s zoning or comprehensive plan, he said.
Greenwood emphasized that the use of resources that would lead to more data centers, like using Chat GPT or other AI software, was not going to slow down. Having a plan is the only way to prepare, he said. He later said making a plan doesn’t mean a community will ultimately say yes to a data center; that just means they are prepared to properly evaluate proposals that come forward.
Later, Sweeney said officials should also be aware that there are different types of centers. While the impression is that many are large, some are more modestly-sized, he said.
Local leaders also heard about the experience Morgan County officials during the proposal stage of the planned data center in Monrovia.
Mike Dellinger, executive director of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp., spoke of how the Google data center was an opportunity for a rural, cash-strapped county like Morgan to get more revenue. While the center received a 10-year tax break, they will still have to pay 50% of their taxes in the first year, he said.
It will also provide $50 million more in revenue each year that will benefit the whole county, Dellinger said.
Dellinger encouraged local leaders to really consider data center proposals and not reflexively turn them down. Officials should find out what the developer needs, and the developer should, in turn, ask locals what they need, he said.
Communication is key
Communication was repeatedly emphasized throughout the panel.
Schneider encouraged local leaders to contact their electric utilities immediately. Utilities also have a role in providing education on the impacts and their plans, she said.
Forshey emphasized it will take time for the utility infrastructure for data centers to be built, so there’s a need for understanding where everyone is at in the process.
He also brought up a misconception about when data centers arrive in a community.
“A lot of people talk about, ‘Well, this thing’s going to land in our community, and all of a sudden, grandma’s home is going out tomorrow?’ That’s just not the case,” he said.
Utilities have to undergo a “robust, detailed” planning process when it comes to any transmission upgrades. This is not only with the IURC, but also the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which manages the bulk transmission system for this area of North America, Forshey said.
MISO considers the impact a project would have on each utility’s system and the grid as a whole, he said.
Keeping residents informed is also important. Dellinger said there’s a problem with people believing social media posts above experts who are knowledgeable, such as the panelists.
He added it’s important to keep conversations going and to remind residents of the benefits. Extra electrical capacity, for example, would benefit the whole system and help keep rates lower long-term, he said.
No local interest in data centers
Local officials who attended the CIRDA meeting — Barnett, Greenwood, and Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers — all said they found it informative. They also said they don’t know of any active interest in data centers locally, with some officials adding they’re not actively seeking them out. Whiteland Town Manager Carmen Young also attended, but she didn’t return a request for comment by deadline.
The city of Greenwood has not received any data center proposal so far, Myers said. While Franklin is “not pushing for a data center,” Duke Energy and Johnson County REMC have both reached out to the city and told them that potential developers had contacted them about bringing a data center to Franklin, Barnett said.
“My response to that is I’m not interested if I don’t know who I’m talking to,” Barnett said. “So I told them, ‘I’m not going to talk to them about it until we find out who we’re talking to,’ and then we can figure out where [it would go], and what is the plan from the electric company?”
“We’re being very careful, just because we know that a lot of the citizens are probably not in favor because they’re not informed with the facts,” Barnett continued.
Bargersville officials are not actively working on any data center plans, as Greenwood said it is not part of their current comprehensive plan. But officials want to be part of the conversation for the region, he said.
“We understand that it can lead to other industries, which can lead to more jobs, which can lead to helping our community, and so we don’t want to turn our back on that, whether or not we ever wind up even entertaining something like that,” he said.
However, if a neighboring community does have a data center, it will affect the town whether officials want it to or not, Greenwood said. The town is also in a unique position because Bargersville has a municipal electric utility that serves town residents and surrounding areas, including parts of Greenwood and Whiteland.
“It’s a little different than some of these other communities, but we want to be a part of the conversation to understand what’s going on and how we could maybe benefit from it, and then make sure that we’re a part of that,” Greenwood said.
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