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State commerce official briefs Ottawa County on data‑center risks, power thresholds and local options
Summary
Kansas Department of Commerce representative Paul Hughes told commissioners how data centers are sized by megawatts, why a 75‑MW threshold triggers Southwest Power Pool planning and how counties can vet speculative developers, citing SB 98 and state intelligence vetting requirements.
Paul Hughes of the Kansas Department of Commerce gave a detailed briefing to Ottawa County commissioners on the data‑center industry and the planning questions local governments should ask.
Hughes explained that data centers are typically sized by electrical load rather than square footage and that the Southwest Power Pool treats 75 megawatts as a threshold where transmission planning begins. "There's a threshold within the Southwest Power Pool that they consider to be a large load and that's 75 megawatts," he said. He added that data‑center growth is driven largely by storage needs for images and video and that there are many categories of facilities, from small co‑located racks to mega campuses that can exceed 200 megawatts.
Hughes addressed common local concerns — water use and noise — and said modern facilities increasingly use air‑cooled designs and improved technologies that can substantially reduce water demand. He noted state policy tools including SB 98 and an intelligence vetting process managed by the attorney general’s office that can be required before incentive eligibility. "In Kansas, it's prohibited by law for a data center to pass their infrastructure costs to the residential rate payers," Hughes told the board, describing guardrails the state has put in place to protect residential customers.
Commissioners asked how the county would learn if a developer had contacted power providers; Hughes recommended the county engage utility economic‑development staff (for example, Evergy) to request courtesy notices when a data center is being evaluated. He also advised communities to consider master planning, moratoria for study, and vetting developer balance sheets to distinguish legitimate operators from speculators.
The presentation closed with practical next steps: contact local energy providers to request courtesy notices, review SPP maps and the department's cost‑benefit analysis tool, and identify county areas where light‑ or heavy‑industrial uses would be acceptable should a developer approach the county.
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