(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The Sangamon County Board meets Tuesday night; and, while a vote on a proposed data center in the county is still a month away, the public will likely make more comments on it before then.
Governor Pritzker is even weighing in on data centers and whether they should be here, saying if they’re approved, they shouldn’t have an impact on power.
“We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the electricity available,” said Pritzker. “And, that we’re not affecting people’s rates on their bills they’re receiving at home, or small business are receiving at their businesses.”
That means, Pritzker says, data centers paying their fair share.
“I do not want to add data centers that are not paying their fair share, and making sure that we’re not affecting home rates in any way by having data centers in the state,” Pritzker said, during an unrelated event Monday in Granite City. “If they do threaten to raise rates, we’ve got to slow them down and make sure they understands what they’re responsibilities are. We’re going to be looking at in the legislature in the spring.”
The Governor believes that his administration has done things to make sure otherwise that the power grid can sustain data centers.
“We lifted the moratorium on development of new nuclear power in the state. It’s why we’ve expanded the amount of solar and wind that are being developed in the state,” said Pritzker. “We’ve added, really, megawatts and megawatts to make sure that we’ve got both reliable and plentiful electricity.”
Local residents claim that data centers are a burden on power grids, and the environment, also using large amounts of water to cool their units.
The county’s Zoning Board is expected to vote on a recommendation as soon as next week, but it’s not scheduled for the full County Board until next month, at a meeting that’s been moved to the BOS Center, due to expected public interest.
