Data Center Proposal Emerges as County Holds Hearing on Moratorium

For the third time since fall, a company has publicly expressed interest in building a new data center in Cumberland County. This comes as the county and Fayetteville are considering moratoriums and regulations on the controversial facilities.

Data center developer Eric Little, a partner with Virginia-based PRSM Group, told the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Monday that his company has a client that wants to build a data center on 50 acres here. Little described the plan during a public hearing on the county’s proposed moratorium on these projects. He said he hoped commissioners will reject a moratorium.

Little declined to specify the location of the proposed data center to CityView, beyond saying it’s in an industrial park and not near residences. His client wants to build it in two stages of 1 million square feet each, he said, and it would power artificial intelligence. He doesn’t expect the project to advance before a moratorium is enacted.

Commissioners have been considering whether to enact a moratorium on data center construction while they decide how to regulate them. They did not take any formal action on a moratorium during Monday’s meeting.

The Fayetteville City Council is also considering a moratorium as it develops regulations. A county moratorium and regulations would not apply within the Fayetteville city limits.

Most of the 21 people who spoke at Monday’s moratorium hearing said they want Cumberland County to temporarily ban data center construction. People suggested periods of one to three years.

The growth of data centers in recent years—as demand has grown for electronic records storage, commerce, crypto currency mining, artificial intelligence, and other computational needs—has drawn scrutiny in Fayetteville and cities across North Carolina.

Critics question their vast consumption of electricity as electric rates are rising, noise from their cooling systems, and water use for their cooling systems. The public’s growing mistrust of artificial intelligence may also fuel animosity toward facilities that run AI systems.

Data Center Details

The public discussion of the PRSM Group data center came after two other data center projects were made public last fall.

Terra Nexus Ventures of Charlotte submitted plans to Fayetteville for a 200-megawatt data center to go on Custer Avenue near Eastover and the power plant for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission.

Plans circulated for Energy Storage Solutions of Rocky Mount to build a 300-megawatt data center on Dunn Road on Fayetteville’s east side. Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp., said on Thursday that this project is not going to be built.

Little’s client wants to build a 225-megawatt plant, he said. For comparison, the Fayetteville PWC’s website says the utility provides electricity to about 86,500 homes, businesses, and other customers, and their average total load is 228 megawatts.

Little acknowledged to commissioners the concerns of data center opponents. “They have good points,” he said.

The critics mentioned data centers in Utah and Texas, and those were “horrible,” Little said. He argued that technology has improved, and data centers built today “aren’t as horrible as the ones from 10 years, 20 years ago.”

In his comments to commissioners and CityView, Little said his client’s project would cool the computers by immersing them in water.

This would be in a closed-loop system, he said. The water would constantly flow through the system to move the heat away from the computers and expel the heat from the system via heat exchangers, similar to how an air conditioner works. The water would then flow back to the computers to capture more heat.

He estimated it would take 15 to 18 months to build the project, and the construction phase would employ about 1,500 people.

“There’s certainly a lot of examples of data centers gone wrong,” Little told commissioners. “However, you guys have a chance to do it right.”

Some in the crowd called out at Little as he concluded his remarks. Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere chided them. “I’d ask you to be respectful of the speakers,” he said.

Fayetteville PWC Opposes Moratorium

If a data center opens in Cumberland County, the PWC, which is owned by the City of Fayetteville, could be its electricity, water, and sewer provider.

Timothy Bryant, PWC’s CEO and general manager, said there is no need for a moratorium. PWC has safeguards to protect residential customers from negative effects of commercial customers, including data centers, he said.

“PWC has in place a large general service rate tariff for large commercial industrial customers to ensure that large customers pay their fair share to serve electric and water load,” Bryant said. Large customers are required to pay for any infrastructure or upgrades needed to provide those services, he said.

New data centers “require minimal amounts of water due to closed-loop cooling systems,” he said.

“Where data centers require additional power generation, these data center development owners pay for that new generation. It’s not current customers,” Bryant said.

Data centers and their support businesses pay property taxes and support community growth, he said.

When Bryant finished speaking, some people in the audience booed.

Public Calls for a Moratorium

Monday’s public hearing filled the meeting chamber, which has seating for around 100 spectators. Many held signs calling for a moratorium or a ban on data centers. Some people stood along the walls, while others watched through the windows from the hall outside the chamber.

Some of the comments in support of a moratorium, and against construction of data centers:

• “Economic development must never come at the cost of our children’s health and future,” said Nicholas Cline. He said those that use evaporative cooling systems put pollutants into the air, including PFAS “forever chemicals.” The community has already been polluted with PFAS by the area’s Chemours Co. chemical factory, he said.

• “I support the moratorium because once infrastructure of this scale is approved, the impacts don’t just disappear later if we get it wrong,” said Natalya Rashchukina. “I believe communities and technology can grow together, but not at the expense of our farmland, clean water, local ecosystems, wildlife, food resources, or our children’s future.”

• Issac Alfaro said he is a technology enthusiast who uses artificial intelligence, and has experience managing computer servers for web services and AI. He asked for a nuanced moratorium. “I am against large stakeholders expanding their wealth on the backs of residential ratepayers,” Alfaro  said. “I am against the persistent false promises of no rate hikes and ample jobs.”

• North Carolina is in a severe drought, Justin Pruitt said, and the nation’s electric grid is under stress. He cited a high-level reliability alert issued May 4 by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. that said utilities were having challenges managing data center loads. “If the grid fails and the water infrastructure collapses, the data centers don’t suffer. Their executives don’t go hungry,” Pruitt said. “The people who suffer are the neighbors, the elderly, and our local food systems.”

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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