Keeping Up with Data Centers
From the Western Ag Network, I’m Bob Larson. More data centers are bringing new challenges for utilities across rural America.
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, says as electricity demand continues to rise, utilities will need both new and existing resources to maintain reliability …
MATHESON … “It’s going up, and it's going up a lot, and it requires a significant amount of new generating capacity to meet that need. It also requires us to stop shutting down power plants that still have useful life, which public policy has been encouraging over the last few years in this country, and we've got to stop doing that because we need to make sure we can keep the lights on at an affordable price."
Despite the growing debate around data centers, Matheson says the issue is not whether or not communities should support data centers, because that’s not the right question …
MATHESON … “But what we are for is making sure that our utilities have the ability to make the decision that's right for them in their local community. We don't like one-size-fits-all mandates on data centers or any other policy, quite frankly, that's out there. Because different geographic locations have different characteristics, different capacities, different needs, and different challenges. And the extent that you can maintain that autonomy and local control in making decisions from an electric cooperative standpoint, that drives through all of our policy advocacy that we do.”
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
