ECE CEO talks data centers

The President and CEO for the East Central Energy Cooperative, Justin Jahnz, assured the public in attendance at a recent meeting in North Branch City Hall,  that any data center looking to utilize power from the local system is at least five years away from reality.  There is no part of the ECE system, at least, that is prepared to supply distribution of power to facilitate any “hyperscale’ facility at this time.

Also, should a data center or other high energy user like crypto mining—propose a facility in the Chisago County area;  if they wish to connect to the grid through ECE, “...they will pay upfront costs of any system improvements,” Jahnz added.

ECE has 70,000 members and covers 14 counties in east, north central Minnesota and the upper west edge of Wisconsin.  North Branch sold its municipal power assets to the cooperative a few years ago.  The North Branch area also is in service territories for Xcel and Connexus.

As a trained electrician and someone who has been involved with the cooperative for 18 years; Jahnz advised the North Branch City Council members to stick with what the city has the ability to control as it considers ordinances to regulate these highly controversial projects.  “To the degree we (ECE) can be a resource, we are happy to do that,” he added.

North Branch is where a number of cities are located — there is a moratorium on new applications in place as officials embark on writing regulations and conditions governing high utility use permits. 

The council welcomed Jahnz to speak prior to the regular council meeting for the public to be able to learn more about where the city is at.

High utility user projects are “hyperscale" or those that require more power than what is commonly available on the grid now.  Two types of smaller facilities are defined as “enterprise” and “co-located” and these generally store data on a contract basis.

ECE cooperative is not actively seeking out high utility user proposals, Jahnz continued,  but coop officials are in regular conversations with developers scouting out locations for all the levels of data center intensity. 

North Branch activated its moratorium on high end utility projects to be effective until January 2027 but council was advised this can be extended for another six months if necessary.  Chisago County, which has authority in the non-municipal areas, has a data center study underway and in August imposed a one year moratorium on high utility user permits applications.

Looking at the big picture, Chisago County has two transmission lines that could be attractive for integrating a data center nearby, the audience was told. 

The main powerlines from Canada go along the east side of North Branch/ Harris and through Chisago County to the Twin Cities and there is a similar-sized line closer to Cambridge. These are part of the MISO multi-state grid.  And while ECE service territory is home to five substations, which step up power as it travels to retain strength, Jahnz said the substations by themselves are not a major part of decisions to locate a data center.

Statewide Jahnz said the outlook is that the systems are all aging.  ECE has to consider system reliability, resiliency and affordability.  Its Board of Directors and executives are all engaged in discussions about power supply demands.  The city meanwhile, does have the authority to act as gatekeepers for local water supplies and enforcing codes like noise, lights and related impact of data center operations.