‘We know how to do it right’: Suburbs welcoming data centers say they’ll benefit their communities

When it comes to the use of electricity and other resources like water, data centers are expected to pay their way and keep residents and fellow businesses free of negative side effects of their presence, Hoffman Estates Village Manager Eric Palm said Wednesday.

Hoffman Estates is home to two data center campuses in development, and a third could be on the way. The financial responsibility for the resources and the infrastructure they need to operate lies with the operators, Palm said.

However, according to a report this week from market monitor Morning Analytics, the rapid development of data centers connected to the largest U.S. electric grid has raised costs by $9.4 billion for customers across the Midwest and East Cost, including Illinois.

“The current conditions are not the result of organic load growth,” the report states. “The current conditions in the capacity market are almost entirely the result of large load additions from data centers, both actual historical and forecast.”

For suburban residents, that means an average increase of about $10.60 per month on ComEd bills, the utility said this week.

But those increases are more the result of the widespread proliferation of data centers, and not their location in any specific town. The hike for a customer in Elk Grove Village — home to 14 data centers — isn’t larger than for a customer in Schaumburg, which has none.

Palm noted that a data center’s construction also can have benefits for the community. Besides the local tax revenue they generate, they can bring infrastructure improvements, like those undertaken by Microsoft to upgrade the aging water and sewer system near its Lakewood Boulevard campus in Hoffman Estates.

Compass Datacenters, which is building a campus on the former Sears headquarters site, will use a water-free cooling system and hydrogenated vegetable oil-based fuels for backup power, as well as taking additional environmentally sustainable measures. Palm the campus will not exceed the water use of Sears and the approximately 9,000 employees it once housed.

Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said no one in his town, which is expected to add another 13 data centers within the next four years, will experience a power outage or water shortage because of those data centers.

“We know how to do it right,” Johnson said. “They recycle water more than ever before. They’re looking at natural gas. They’re finding ways to reduce the environmental impact.”

Johnson said this region is an ideal place for the data center industry to build the facilities needed to keep up with the demand for cloud storage and other computing needs.

“It’s a win all the way across the board,” he added. “We want to welcome them to Illinois, not scare them away. Illinois is a place where they can thrive. They’re a pleasure to have in the community, and with minimal impact.”

In Mount Prospect, a ComEd substation is nearing completion that will serve CloudHQ’s two forthcoming data center buildings on the former United Airlines headquarters site.

Village Trustee Terri Gens expressed confidence in village staff’s ability to prevent negative impacts on residents.

“I have faith in their professional expertise,” she said. “We want to make sure there are no drawbacks or detriments.”

Naperville’s municipally owned electric utility has contracted with ICF Resources to conduct a “network interconnection study” related to the possibility of a data center being built along the I-88 corridor. All costs associated with the study will be billed to the developer.

The developer also would pay for any physical upgrades needed, as well as engineering studies that would be required, City Manager Doug Krieger said.

“When we do our rate studies, we ensure that each rate class, whether it be one of the heavy industrial users or the residential only pay for those costs that that type of industry or residents cost the city,” Krieger said.

Several city council members recently voiced concerns about the cost-benefit ratio of data centers.

“It's not a quantum computing center where you'd have very highly skilled, highly trained employees coming to Naperville,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said. “And the demand on electric and water are so enormous that I just don't see the upside.”

· Daily Herald staff writer Katlyn Smith contributed to this report.