PUC considers 600 MW Amazon diesel proposal

On Friday, February 28, the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will take up the proposal by Amazon for 600 MW of diesel backup generators to serve their massive, planned data center near Becker. The project will be located adjacent to Xcel Energy’s massive coal (and now solar) power Sherco complex.

To put things into perspective, 600 MW of electric power would be more than enough to serve a city of over 1 million people.

The issue immediately before the PUC is a possible exemption from a “certificate of need” requirement. The law was meant to apply to rate-regulated public utilities, in order to ensure that they didn’t overbuild their systems, needlessly. The certificate process requires a builder to obtain a permit for any power plant greater than 50 MW.

That’s 1/12 the size of the proposed Amazon facility. But then again, Amazon doesn’t have any electric customers to worry about. Furthermore, the facility won’t be connected to the grid and would serve only the local site.

So, Amazon is asking for an exemption from the permit, or at least a waiver of the voluminous filing requirements related to public utility information. PUC staff are recommending a full exemption.

In addition, the PUC is expected to revisit on Friday (for discussion only) the unholy land deal associated with the Amazon project. You will recall that Xcel Energy sold the land for something like 10 cents on the dollar to an Xcel vendor, who then flipped the property to Amazon and pocketed $65 million in profits at the expense of Xcel ratepayers.

Even if granted an exemption, Amazon would still need to obtain a host of other permits, including an air quality permit from the state Pollution Control Agency.