Large Loads and Data Centers

LOOKING OUT FOR YOU:

How NVREC is protecting members from large loads, data centers

Nishnabotna Valley REC and our wholesale power providers have adopted policies to protect our members from the financial risks associated with large commercial loads and data center developments, including those related to artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency projects.
 

As an electric cooperative with a defined service territory in Iowa, we have an obligation to serve members within our service area. However, that obligation does not require our existing members to subsidize the substantial investments needed to serve new large loads.
 

Under our existing policies, large loads must pay their own way. This insulates the co-op and our members from the investment and ongoing expenses of serving these projects.

"Large loads and data centers are required to pay their own way,

ensuring our members don’t foot the bill!" - CEO Bill McKim
 

The current and future electric generation being developed by Basin Electric Power Cooperative, our electric generation provider, will not serve new large loads or data centers. Instead, those new generation assets will help meet the growth in our region’s traditional energy needs.
 

Large-load customers must privately finance or secure the power needed to serve their facilities and pay the upfront costs of any required substation, distribution, or transmission upgrades.
 

These policies help ensure Nishnabotna Valley's members are not responsible for the cost of a project being delayed, scaled back, or shut down in the future.
 

When developed under these safeguards, new large energy users can benefit members.

By increasing electricity sales, large loads help spread the co-op’s fixed costs — such as poles, wires, and line trucks — across more kilowatt-hours, resulting in greater rate stability for our members.