Stevens: data center is coming to Van Wert

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Brent Stevens has confirmed that a data center is “100 percent” coming to approximately 220 acres at the Mega Site in Van Wert.

Stevens made the comment Thursday morning while recording a segement of the next Commissioners Corner/Mayor’s Conference program that will air at 8:25 a.m. this Sunday on WERT 1220AM/104.3FM and 99.7FM WKSD.

“The company is going to close on the ground before July 21,” Stevens told show host Chris Roberts. “What we’re closing on this month would be the developer, not the end user. They put this whole package together and then hand it off to the end user.”

Stevens declined to reveal the name of the developer or the company will run the data center. He did address concerns about the amount of electricity needed to operate such a facility and he noted it shouldn’t result in higher rates for electric customers. 

“Where everybody in Van Wert gets their power from is not where they’re getting their power from,” Stevens explained. “It’s going to be coming down from the north. There are these big lines to the north of Van Wert, 345 kVs (kilovolts) and that’s where that power is going to be coming into, into a distribution station at the Mega Site.”

“When all this extra load comes into Van Wert, it actually does the opposite to rates and will potentially lower the rates, not increase the rates,” he added. “This is an all-AEP project and they will have supplementary power out there through generator systems, because they can’t allow the computers to go down, so they’ll have a generator that will kick on and they also may run those generators during peak hours.”

Stevens said representatives from AEP have agreed to come to a future city council meeting to discuss the matter further.

Another concern expressed by residents and others is the amount of water required for cooling purposes at the data center.

“We have two million gallons of excess capacity (and) a lot of people have asked ‘is it going to drain our aquifer’” Stevens stated. “No, because we’re not going to take any water out of aquifer to supply this.”

He also said a reservoir may be built at or near the mega site, but not at city expense, to hold excess water from Town Creek. An engineering study for a reservoir at the site needs to be completed.

The data center, which will house and operate computing hardware such as servers, storage devices, and network equipment, is expected to employ approximately 250 workers.

The full interview with more information will air at 8:25 Sunday morning on WERT and WKSD.