Congressman Bruce Westerman hosted a live town hall on Tuesday night where he addressed what he called the facts and some of the myths about data centers.
Point One: Everyone utilizes a data center every time they use a phone or computer.
“ Let’s start with the premise that data centers are here .If you’re on a computer tonight, if you use a smartphone, you’re utilizing a data center. If you have an app on your phone, you’re utilizing a data center. If you check the weather you use the maps program .All of this computing has to be done somewhere and it happens in data centers so we’re extremely dependent on data centers.
“We have new technology, artificial intelligence that is even more dependent on data centers. AI is a technology that the more I learn about it, in a way, the more I wish it was something we had never really discovered.”
Point two: It is part of a cold war with China
“ Also, I want everybody to understand this. We are in a Cold War with China on developing AI technology. It is a race to see who can get there first. A lot of stuff that’s being put on online and a lot of the fear that’s being generated about data centers is coming from people who want to manipulate our system so that we can’t build data centers. But even if it comes to having to build data centers on military bases, just to meet our defense needs, then I think we’re going to see data centers being built. But again, it’s technology that everybody uses every time you pick up your smartphone and it’s the world that we live in, we’ve got to figure out how to best utilize our resources and be smart about developing data centers and new generating capacity, new transmission lines and and everything that goes along with that.
Point three: Powerful and part of national defense
“It’s extremely powerful. It can be used for good, but can also be used for bad. It is a national defense, a national security issue. We’re in a Cold War with China on developing the latest AI technology.”
Westerman said it’s pretty sobering when you find out how AI can be used. “The good things, you know, we think cures for diseases can be sped up. We think it can have a lot of benefits to life, but we also know that bad actors can use it to do bad things. The point is, we have to develop AI. To develop AI, you have to have data centers,” he explained.
Point Four: Early Data Centers got a bad rap, new ones more environmentally friendly
He said, a lot of people associate a data center with bitcoin mining.
“There were some early data centers that were thrown up. They were built quickly, built cheaply. A lot of times they had diesel generators to supply the power, they had noisy fans. They didn’t employ a lot of people and they got a bad rap.”
He went on to say people should be concerned.
“I’m concerned myself. They did use a lot of water. The new data centers res- recirculate water. So .. you have water. And even when we’re talking about a hyperscale ,massive data center you’re talking about the amount of water that it takes to operate a golf course for several blocks of a of a of a residential area in some of these data centers. But, the water gets recycled. So it’s used to cool the computer equipment. Then the water is cooled and it’s recycled again. So the water issue, I don’t think is as big an issue as what some people make it out to be.”
“It does take water, but it’s not a big water consumer like what we’ve seen with some early data centers. Data center technology is continuing to get better.
Point Five: Electricity use is massive but bills could get lower,not higher
“ The amount of electricity that data centers are using is mind-blowing. I have a a background in engineering, I’m still a licensed engineer, so I kind of understand energy and power and there was a point in my life if you had told me that there was going to be a technology that uses much energy it’s what data centers do, I’m not sure I would’ve believed it.”
“We’ve got a couple of nuclear reactors up at Russellville, Ark. Nuclear One and Nuclear Two, these reactors are a little less than a gigawatt each.
We’re seeing data centers being built that are designed to at some point use four to five gigawatts of power in a single data center. Now, these are obviously hyper scale data centers. Think about that: four or five nuclear power plants for one data center.
That’s just mind-boggling-it sounds irrational, but that’s the electrical loads that are being projected out there.
“So now let’s talk a little bit about how the electrical grid works. There are generators scattered all over, whether they’re nuclear power plants, whether they’re hydro turbines, whether they’re gas power plants, whether they’re coal power plants, they could be windmills and solar farms. You have a lot of equipment generating electricity on the grid that’s connected with transmission lines.
“We have oversized generating capacity because we have to have the amount of generating capacity to meet peak demand. So you have a lot of generating capacity that’s sitting there not operating. So it’s an inefficient use of generating capacity. If you put a large consistent load like a data center on the grid, you automatically make the existing generating equipment more efficient. So, that generating equipment costs a lot of money. We pay for that generating equipment in our utility bills. It- If they’re selling more electricity using the same generating equipment theoretically,it could lower your electrical process for residential, commercial, and industrial consumers.
By putting these loads out there that make the generating equipment more efficient. So we’re going to need more generating equipment and the thing that it- to keep rates down is to build smart generating equipment.
And the data center companies are willing to pay for that new generating equipment. They’re willing to pay for the new transmission equipment. So we have to have smart contract. That’s critical to building this new electrical generating capacity that’s going to be needed for the data centers”
Point Six: Smart contracting,communities can define what they want and hold companies accountable
“That gets back to our public service commission, our local laws. People who are looking at putting data centers in communities need to determine what they want from a contracting standpoint, what the requirements are. He said for communities and or developers to “define what the water use requirements are.
“Define what the electrical capacity has to be and all these companies accountable for it. There’s a scenario and we’ve seen this happen where data centers are built. And they’ve been a huge benefit to communities where they’re built. We’re talking about billions of dollars of investment. We’re talking about thousands of construction jobs. Somebody mentioned about making less money than a plumber or an electrician, being in healthcare. Right now electricians are making a lot of money working on data centers and those are two very noble careers . He encouraged more people going into plumbing and electrical work.
“We don’t have enough people going into those areas,” Westerman said.