Experts from Lakeland Electric and the city’s water utility shared information with city commissioners at the official first reading of the ordinance to enact a 12-month moratorium on data centers and large-load customers requiring more than 50 megawatts of electricity a month.
“One of the benefits of us having our own utility is we get to have this conversation,” said Mayor Sara Roberts McCarley. “It’s not a private sector company saying, ‘We’re going to do X.’ So you have a voice at the table.”
Both Lakeland Electric and Lakeland water utilities are part of the standard design review process when projects request power or water.
Lakeland Electric’s feedback was included in the 13-page review of “Project Swan,” which was provided to developers after they originally submitted their plan. Water utilities evaluate each project based on the amount of water requested and the capacity of the water or wastewater infrastructure at the proposed site.
Lakeland Electric perspective: ‘The right thing to do’
Scott Bishop, assistant general manager responsible for energy delivery at Lakeland Electric, responded to questions about the impact of a data center or large-load customer on the utility.
“I like the moratorium. I appreciate it,” Bishop said. “My heart is around reliability and affordability for our customers.”
Bishop called a customer requesting 100 megawatts of power per month “an extreme case.” Current generative capabilities and infrastructure would not be able to handle that level of demand.
He said even without a moratorium, it would require “herculean” efforts to get a 100-megawatt customer operating on the Lakeland Electric grid.
“I’ve been doing this 25 years — every bit of distribution, transmission, operations — long time,” Bishop said. “It’s serious reliability and risk issues. This is unprecedented stuff that the country’s dealing with.”
“So this is the right thing to do: to pause, take a breath, get all of our ducks in a row, and then we can start doing business again further if we decide we want to do that — for this community, for everyone — But the breath, it needs to happen.”
What we learned from Bishop
- Lakeland has three data centers operating within the utility’s service area, all using well below 50 megawatts of power. Bishop said they could have been approved and zoned for industrial use when they were originally built.
- He said currently Lakeland Electric does not offer tax incentives.
- If a developer proposed providing their own power with a gas turbine, Bishop said, The “State of Florida is not an open market, so it’s going to take some finagling of the current setup in order for that to happen.” He also said there is a three-to-five-year backlog on gas turbines, depending on the manufacturer.
- Publix is Lakeland Electrics’ largest single-site customer, using 18 megawatts per month. It is not a data center.
If the moratorium is approved, Bishop said Lakeland Electric would do the following during the 12-month pause:
- Ensure the needed processes are in place to bring large-load customers online
- Complete a large-load impact and feasibility study
- Develop “a real rate that has zero impact to our additional customers, both from a capital perspective and a revenue flow … I don’t want a single person impacted by additional data centers, right? And so how do we craft that rate?” Bishop said.
The federal government is currently developing large-load interconnection guidelines. Bishop warned that hyperscale data centers already under construction may need to back pedal once those guidelines are in place.
“So the moratorium also gives us some time to sit back, watch what that is, and make sure that what we do in the future lines up with what the federal government says we should do,” Bishop said.
Watch the full conversation here.
Water utilities perspective: 'A lot of hurdles'
Joe Costine, promoted to water utilities director as of July 20, also answered questions publicly at Monday’s meeting.
“Water’s a big deal for us,” said Commissioner Mike Musick. “We’re on a peninsula. We look and we say, ‘My gosh, we’re surrounded by water,’ but we are no longer surrounded by cheap water, and that’s a big deal for us.”
What we learned from Costine
- If a project requires the construction of additional water/wastewater infrastructure, those costs are not passed on to other customers.
- Lakeland water utility contracts with the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) for 35 million gallons of water per day. That permit expires in December 2038.
- Costine said peak demand can reach 40 million gallons per day at times, and the city’s facilities have the capability to pump up to 59 million gallons of water per day.
- A large-load water customer would not affect Lakeland’s agreement with the Polk Regional Water Collective, a project planning to drill and access water below the upper aquifer.
- If Lakeland’s water utility does not have capacity, a customer can apply for their own well permit from SWFMD, who would evaluate “not only their proposed use, but also would they impact the environment? Will they impact existing legal users that are in the area?” Costine said. “There’s a lot of hurdles that are there, that’s in place, even if we could not provide (for) them.”
Concerns and accusations
Commissioner Chad McLeod questioned whether the moratorium was a necessary step or if it was a reactionary measure.
Commissioner Ashley Troutman raised concerns that a moratorium could block potential, viable projects from going through the design review process.
“I would encourage our commission to look hard at this language and adopt the language that will say, ‘We are open for business. We are keeping our residents safe and our resources safe, but we also are going to remain an attractive community,’ because there are facilities that need the infrastructure of what we’re going to call the data center,” Troutman said, mentioning hospitals, the school district, and the city of Lakeland as examples.
City Attorney Palmer Davis said that if substantial changes are made to the wording of the proposed ordinance, the city will need to restart the public hearing process with a new first reading.
“I think this is difficult at times because we’re discussing hypotheticals. ‘What if? What if this applicant comes to us? What if this type of user wants to build a facility?’” said McLeod. “If this passes, we have the ability to change the timeline, to carve out a particular use.”
McCarley addressed concerns that have been mentioned in public comments.
“We as a commission do not sign NDAs. We have not signed NDAs with regard to this project,” she said. “That doesn’t happen. It’s illegal.”
McCarley addressed accusations of graft and corruption: “I can assure you that that too doesn’t occur. We actually fill out financial forms that show people what we have individually. We are required to do that by state law.”
Nearly all of the 19 residents who spoke publicly at the meeting implored the commission to approve the year-long pause, but three called for a longer moratorium or an outright ban.
Anna Toms is a reporter for LkldNow, a nonprofit newsroom providing independent local news for Lakeland. Read at LkldNow.com
