While addressing state lawmakers at an interim study in late September, Scale Datacenters CEO Trevor Francis said his company is working on an inconspicuous design for a behind-the-meter project.
“We're building a 100-megawatt power plant in essentially the heart of Oklahoma City right now, and you would never know that it's there because of the way that we designed it,” he said.
Data centers generating energy behind-the-meter means facilities are unplugged from the electric grid and using the power for their own operations.
Francis’s presentation came amid data center questions about water use and electricity rates. The interim study was meant to help Oklahoma lawmakers regulate the growing industry. They also heard from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, the Water Resources Board, representatives from Google and utilities, elected officials and an independent researcher.
Scale Datacenters submitted air quality permit applications with the DEQ in September for its new natural gas units that will be used to power the facilities. The department is working on a technical review of the documents.
Natural gas infrastructure can currently take years to be delivered because of manufacturing constraints and rising electricity demand. Francis said the company worked around this by shipping in used products from a different country.
“We were actually able to import generators from Bulgaria from decommissioned power plants,” he said.
Francis told the lawmakers the company employs 450 people and is also building a facility in southeast Oklahoma.
The state last year passed legislation that could encourage behind-the-meter generation projects. Senate Bill 480, authored by Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston, and Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, authorizes companies to build their own power plants, bypassing utilities.
“We wanted to provide clarity that if a large load [user] comes to Oklahoma and they want to provide their own power generation, that they would have the ability to do that,” Boles told StateImpact in July.
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