On April 7th, Prichard City Council and company representatives from Edged Energy held a meeting with the public to discuss the possibilities of constructing a data center. The proposed development plans to invest $93 million in the city of Prichard and create 20 new jobs. However, there is no guarantee that the local community will have a say in how the revenue produced from this data center will be used. Furthermore, Edged claims to be using a water-less cooling that is far more energy efficient than traditional data centers, but how much of a burden on the power grid would this data center truly be?

Prichard receives electricity from Alabama Power, and currently Alabama Power has proposed multiple rate hikes throughout the past few years. Although Alabama Power plans to freeze these rates until 2027, there is scheduled increases in rates due to the company’s acquisition of Lindsey Hill Power Plant in Autauga County. Pairing this alongside the construction of a data center, Alabama Power will view the increase in energy usage as an excuse to once again impose rate hikes on its customers throughout the state.

Edged Energy talks big game about how their water-less cooling system for their servers saves countless gallons of water usage every year, and is far more energy efficient compared to other data centers. Edged has two data centers located on their campus near Downtown Atlanta, with a third one under construction. The smallest facility on the campus has access to 27 megawatts of power, which has the potential to power the energy of 12,000 homes annually!

Edged Energy has not stated how big or how much power they want access to with this new proposed data center, but one thing is clear: Despite claims that their cooling system allows them to negate water usage and increase energy efficiency compared to other data canters, Edged Energy facilities are still a burden on the power grid, and working-class families will be left to front the bill.

Prichard City Council has not decided whether to approve construction or not. Now is the time to get organized and stop the construction before it happens!