Electric cooperative pitches small data centers as a way to boost Cordova revenue

Clint Coburn, introduced to the council as a representative of the Electric Cooperative, told the council Cordova has unused energy capacity that could attract small data-center operations and other industry partnerships.

"For the city, this model would generate about $70,000 in new sales tax revenues," Coburn said, describing a small data load roughly the size of "a coffee shack" in footprint and roughly 500 kilowatts in winter draw. He explained the cooperative had invested in diesel and hydro plants and had margin-stabilization measures to smooth rates after recent revenue swings.

Councilors asked technical and financial questions. Coburn said the cooperative currently has a little over 10 megawatts of diesel capacity (expected to reach about 12 MW next year) with typical town average load around 3 MW, which leaves room for additional year-round loads. He cautioned staff and council that the cooperative would require the customer to provide backup infrastructure and pay their fair share of diesel usage.

The presentation covered partnerships and outreach: Coburn described outreach to manufacturers and aerospace services, mentioned Greenspark's work on small-scale cloud-server trials elsewhere, and encouraged the city to consider land-leasing and incentive models to recruit industry.

Council members welcomed additional information and suggested a public town-hall or vendor presentation to let residents ask questions and learn about potential costs, incentives and local impacts.