Enid May Have Found A Different Way To Do Data Centers

I know it seems like we've talked the whole data center thing to death lately, but it's a hot topic, and the debate is always the same.

The Questions That Come With A Data Center

How much electricity are they going to use? Who's paying for it? What about the water? What happens to the power grid? And how much of this economic-development gold actually winds up helping the people who already live there?

Now the city of Enid is in the hot seat since they unveiled a proposed data center project. The issue isn't so much the data center itself, but everything proposed around it.

Project Thunderbird would cover roughly 1,735 acres across four campuses, with its own power generation, its own infrastructure, and a plan to use raw water from Kaw Lake instead of Enid's treated drinking water. The proposed power plant could generate up to 3.3 gigawatts, and the developers say the project would operate "behind the meter" so it won't be eating up the same electricity that supplies Enid homes and businesses.

Kaw Lake Is Part Of The Plan

This detail jumped out at me. I've spent so much time on that lake, and it's a strange body of water.

Built for flood control along the Arkansas River, its level moves a ridiculous amount depending on what Oklahoma's weather does year to year. There are times of drought when the shoreline stretches way out there, and other times when it's flooded nearly up to the top of the dam. Not to mention they've been wanting to dredge Kaw for a long time. It's so silted up, there's a sandbar in the middle of the lake you can park a boat and set your lawn chairs up on.

I don't know if it holds nearly as much water as the government pamphlet says it does... or rather, did when it was built. And this is the lake they're talking about using for this project?

That's a pretty interesting twist when you consider where the data center conversation has gone in Oklahoma.

We've already seen communities wrestle with the question of whether these enormous facilities are going to put pressure on electricity and water supplies. Oklahoma's Legislature is even preparing to spend some time talking about the pros and cons of data centers later this month, including their effects on electricity, water, noise, taxes, and local infrastructure.

Enid Wants To Build The Infrastructure Too

Enid's answer appears to be, "What if we build all of the needed infrastructure first?"

That's a whole different proposition than simply dropping a giant building full of computers onto a community and then asking everybody else to figure out how to feed it.

Of course, this is still a proposal. The developers haven't even selected the eventual data center partner. One of the four proposed campuses is also Enid-owned property they're interested in acquiring... Cha-Ching.

Enid may have stumbled onto something worth watching. The data center itself isn't the story. Could they be the first city to figure out how to do data centers right?