Watson confirmed with the Messenger-Inquirer that he has had talks about the idea with officials from Owensboro Municipal Utilities and with U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie.
Watson and other local officials said there is not a definite plan in the works, but the mayor said a site has been considered as a possible location for a data center.
“It’s a possibility,” Watson said Monday. “But nothing is firmed up yet.”
Watson said of a possible data center, “It’s not a big increase in employment, but those are good-paying jobs.”
Watson said he hopes to know more after further consultation with Guthrie.
“It’s all just preliminary,” Watson said. “I wouldn’t put too much thought into it yet.”
City Manager Nate Pagan said firms exploring the possibility of bringing a data center to Owensboro have made contact with local officials.
“We get contacted, OMU gets contacted and the EDC gets contacted,” Pagan said.
“People call the EDC more than us,” said Pagan, adding that firms looking for locations for data centers consider factors such as proximity to large transmission lines.
The city does not have a definitive data center project that it is pursuing, Pagan said, and no firm has officially brought a proposal to city officials.
“I know there are a lot of people looking for sites,” Pagan said.
Daviess County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said the county has not been involved in any discussions about a data center.
“Nobody has reached out to me and my staff,” Castlen said.
In February, TeraWulf Inc., a firm that specializes in building data centers, bought the former Century Aluminum property in Hawesville. The firm said in a press release it would convert the site into a “digital infrastructure campus supporting high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads.”
Castlen said, “For any of us to believe we are not being looked at (by data center developers) is kind of silly. The data centers are coming. Where they are coming, we don’t know.”
In a written response to questions, OMU General Manager Tim Lyons said in an email that the utility “has received a number of inquiries from large-load utilities exploring opportunities within the region over the past year.”
Lyons said OMU provided electric service boundary information to agencies that contacted the utility.
When asked about the possibility of the Massie Property — the city’s recently purchased site for industrial development on U.S. 60 and West Parrish Avenue — Lyons said the Massie property is not in OMU’s service territory.
“At this time, OMU has not received any formal applications for service related to a large-load project,” Lyons said. OMU “does not disclose any information related to potential customers,” Lyons said.
When asked if a specific site within city limits had been discussed, Lyons said discussions of the siting of businesses are exempt from disclosure under the state open meetings law.
Lyons said OMU has not had discussions with Watson regarding how much power OMU could supply to a data center, the size of any potential center, any new infrastructure that would have to be built, or how a data center locating in the city would affect OMU power rates.
Guthrie has been a supporter of data centers.
In an April 29 House Subcommittee on Energy hearing, Guthrie, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, said, “The national security issues with AI and adversarial nations like China and having whose values control AI is vitally important.”
Guthrie said during the hearing: “It is no secret that energy demands coming from data centers are raising concerns about affordability in our communities.”
But Guthrie said, “When done right, research and evidence continue to show that load growth coming from data centers actually lowers costs for communities because new data centers bring needed investment into the grid modernization, while connecting baseload energy that keeps the lights on for everybody for 365 days a year.”
An official from Guthrie’s office said Guthrie and Watson have discussed the TeraWulf data center project in Hancock County and how that project could help the community.
Guthrie’s legislative staff are not aware of any data center project specific to Owensboro, the official said.
Claude Bacon, president and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said the agency has not been working with Watson on a potential data center project. The organization has been contacted “many half a dozen times in the last six months” by firms exploring potential locations for a data center, Bacon said.
“Like many other communities, we have had inquiries about property from those who say they are working on behalf of an AI or data center site. This has been common throughout the state and region.”
When asked if there was a potential data center project or firms looking to build a facility, Bacon said: “There is no project that can be discussed at this time.”
Although the EDC has been contacted about the possibility of a data center, Bacon said, “the EDC receives calls about property in the community on a regular basis that do not develop into potential projects.”
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