CLAREMORE, Okla. — Add Claremore to the list: another town facing hte prospects of a new data center.
A piece of land on the north side of town could soon host a data center developed by Beale Infrastructure.
2 News Oklahoma listened to Amber Robinson Rodriguez. She hopes her city leaders will handle the situation with tact.
“I hope that they find an opportunity to increase public participation,” Rodriguez said, “And they just, you know, think this over in terms of, if we do this, how are we going to set up gaps on water usage, on electricity .… very clearly outlined contracts that are going to see benefit to our community.”
Leadership at the City of Claremore has not confirmed the name of the developer outright. However – Beale Infrastructure published a full webpage dedicated to a project in Claremore.
SEE FOR YOURSELF >>> Click here to visit Beale’s Claremore page
City Manager John Feary spoke about the Data Center during the Jan. 5 city council meeting; making a few promises to residents.
“It is not a water cooled facility, so there is no huge demand on our water system,” Feary said.
The webpage, however, leaves the topic of water more open-ended.
The website says the following with respect to water.
“Beale is currently evaluating two main water usage scenarios. The City of Claremore has validated that up to 1.5 million gallons per day at peak (averaging closer to 1 million gallons per day or less) could be sustainably sourced from the water system with the appropriate infrastructure upgrades. The actual usage for the site will be determined by the final cooling system selection.”
Beale says that water usage is comparable to golf courses, which did not sit well with Rodriguez.
“I find that offensive, specifically for Claremore, considering that we have multiple golf courses that are a primary attraction of tourism, we use that for recreation. I’m not going to come take my family out on a weekend to come and visit a data center,” Rodriguez said.
Feary made another statement with regard to the power grid.
“This project will not be connected to our grid, that we provide power to from our substation,” Feary said.
CLAREMORE’S PERSPECTIVE >>> Click here to see an FAQ page published by the City of Claremore
That’s true, but it’s complicated.
If the project goes through, a new substation will be built, owned and operated by GRDA.
GRDA provides Claremore's power used by the general public. They would also provide electricity, from a new secondary source, to the data center. In both sceanrios, Claremore is just reselling GRDA’s power. The city would collect on both this project and the public’s power.
That revenue, Feary said, is the benefit of allowing hte project to move forward.
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