ABERDEEN, S.D. (Hub City Radio)- The Aberdeen City Council is working on an ordinance dealing with setting guidelines for data centers within the city limits. On Monday night, they heard from experts looking into, primarily noise and energy usage.
District 23 Senator Mark Lapka talked about SB135 which was labeled the Data Center Bill of Rights. This dealt with not forcing rate increases as a result of data centers.
Chris Nelson is a member of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. He told the council about what they are hearing are from those working with utilities companies in the region to establish the power to needed.
The council heard further from experts.
Scott Sandal is Vice President of Client Services for Sunbird Software. He talked about how data centers are established.
Sandal described that the more computers are in the building, the hotter it becomes.
Sandal discussed the different type of data center there are.
Sandal talked about ways they tried to keep the rooms cool for them to be effective.
Water usage was discussed briefly at the meeting and Sandal did go over that.
Noise:
One concern that’s been expressed is how loud these locations could be. Michael Feinblatt is with TRC Environmental Corporation and he informed the council about the definition of a pure tone.
Feinblatt told the council the more power they need the louder they could become.(1:05)
Feinblatt told the council that they need to regulate larger data centers differently than smaller ones.
Feinblatt gave some suggestions.
Energy usage:
Tom Glanzer, Communication Relations Manager with Northwestern Energy told the council their goal is to take care of the people first before data centers.
Northwestern Energy are looking to establish a new location just west of the Demkota Beef Plant in southwest Aberdeen. Glanzer said that isn’t designed for data centers.
The council will hear from local businesses on how data centers may impact them either positively or negatively on Monday, August 31st beginning at 5:30pm.