An energy distribution company and a data center developer are planning to build a natural gas supply infrastructure to power a large data center in northern Pennsylvania, raising questions that one environmental expert says are important to address.
Under the announced agreement, Philadelphia-based UGI Corporation will sell property to Prime Data Centers, a developer of large-scale data centers, to build an “on-site gas-fueled electric generation facility.” That will support future data center operations in the area.
According to the announcement, the project will be in Pennsylvania’s “northern tier,” which sits on significant natural gas reserves. When asked about the project’s location and timeline, a UGI spokesman said he could not provide more details.
David Hess, a secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under former Governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker, said not much is known about this project. But in general, he said, data center developers often are secretive about where they want to locate.
“So far they seem to have wanted to locate in areas that typically may not have zoning, may not have a lot of capacity to deal with developments on this scale, and local officials frequently are caught flat-footed by these proposals, and you know, that's a bad thing," said Hess, who writes the PA Environment Digest blog.
Hess said there are model ordinances available that can help local officials ask the right questions about these types of proposals.
“I would certainly encourage UGI and the data center company to be very transparent and upfront with the communities about what they have planned," Hess said. "Because it's only through that honest discussion that you can really get to the root of any issues that these communities and the residents might have with these proposals.”
UGI did not identify a specific county for the project. But, Marcellus Drilling News reports that UGI has natural gas storage facilities in Cameron, Potter and Tioga counties which have a combined storage capacity of nearly 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The announcement says UGI will keep about 15 billion cubic feet of underground storage capacity and oil and gas rights associated with the property.
UGI says its planned investment in the project could be more than $100 million.
