North Dakota utility regulators advance power project for data center

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota Public Service Commission on Wednesday approved a temporary variance allowing preliminary construction activities to proceed for power projects to serve a data center north of Fargo.

The variance will allow the company to begin site preparation, such as site grading, prior to approval of the full project.

The $110 million project will add a substation near the Applied Digital data center site east of Interstate 29 between Harwood and Fargo.

A 345-kilowatt powerline,1.74 miles long, will connect to existing powerlines southwest of the substation.

Minnkota Power Cooperative will own and operate the facilities but Minnkota officials told the Public Service Commission that its large load customer — Applied Digital — will pay for the project up front, with no cost to other rate-payers.

Cass County Electric, part of the Minnkota co-op family, will deliver power to the Applied Digital site. The data center will need up to 280 megawatts of power at peak demand.

The line and substation, called the Agassiz Transmission Line and Substation, will be on property already owned by Minnkota and next to an existing powerline along Interstate 29.

Minnkota hopes to start construction this month and have the line operating in September.

The Public Service Commission also decided to respond to a letter from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asking all 50 states to provide information on whether data center developers are asking government officials to sign confidentiality agreements, whether their agency has experienced impediments to obtaining in formation on these projects and whether they will commit to publicly releasing copies of nondisclosure agreements related to data center projects.

North Dakota regulators plan to respond to the letter, but it will be brief because the Public Service Commission does not have the authority to regulate data centers.

“They don’t come to us. We don’t regulate them,” said Randy Christmann, chair of the Public Service Commission.

Christmann said he doesn’t want to create a precedent of always responding to requests for information from all 535 members of Congress. But he said there is a risk to ignoring a request like this. Commissioners Sheri Haugen-Hoffart and Jill Kringstad said they supported submitting a response.

“We, too, are watching some of this internally in this state,” Haugen-Hoffart said.

Christmann said the Public Service Commission could not commit to publicly sharing details of any data center nondisclosure agreements the agency becomes aware of through its work with investor-owned public utilities.

“We would just follow North Dakota’s confidentiality laws,” Christmann said. “Things that are trade secret protected would be protected, and things that aren’t trade secret protected are open public information.”

Reach North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com.

North Dakota Monitor reporter Jacob Orledge can be reached at jorledge@northdakotamonitor.com.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the project had been approved. A temporary construction variance was approved, but regulators have yet to act on the overall project.