DATA CENTER
SAN ANGELO — We know what the city and chamber leaders say about the Skybox Data Centers project. But it can feel a lot like a sales pitch.
We wanted to find out what this looks like compared to other data center projects around the country, so we reached out to Daniel King, a research fellow with the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) to find out more.
FAI is a public policy advocacy organization bringing expertise in technology to government policy, based in Washington D.C.
King’s area of focus with FAI is artificial intelligence and Energy Policy.
Lack of Abatement Ask Positive Sign
The fact that Skybox has not yet asked for abatements surprised King, who said it’s not uncommon to see requests for abatements of up to 75 to 100 precent on projects like this in other areas, and suggested the unique nature of the location, and already existing but under-used infrastructure, as the possible reason for this.
In general, he thought the project looked pretty good based on the limited information available.
King explained that many large data center projects are more speculative, and rely on these public incentives to get off the ground. But there is an ever-growing demand for hyper scalers.
The business model seems sound and the fact that the company sought out this location bodes well for San Angelo.
Skybox Data Centers has a good track record across the country and has been in the business a long time.
Power and Water Issues
One of the challenges with AI installations, and other types of data centers, is found where the electrical infrastructure is already at-or-over capacity and a company wants to add to the existing demand.
Texas’ Senate Bill 6 created new requirements for adding large loads to the grid, including a $100,000 permitting fee, screening and reliability studies, deposits and financial prepayment requirements for the developer.
Leaks are not a problem with the modern closed-loop chiller systems, according to experts, although there may be periodic recharges required during regular maintenance, generally, the use of water is pretty modest with these types of systems.
King said the factors San Angelo should be interested in are questions of priority if there is a curtailment order regarding power or water use.
These will usually be dealt with at the Public Utilities Commission. This includes local industry needs. If there is an extended outage as during a winter storm, who has priority in having power restored
