WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — West Memphis officials are assuring West Memphis Utilities customers they will not see a rate increase because of Google’s data center, which is under construction in the city.
The company issued a statement Thursday saying Google is paying for the costs of the infrastructure that is needed to support the facility.
WMU said customers will not see an increase in their utility bills because of the Google data center. Google is financially responsible for the utility infrastructure required specifically to serve its West Memphis data center, and those costs are not being passed on to existing WMU customers.
WMU also said it is an independent public power utility and does not purchase its power from Entergy Arkansas. The utility said its relationship with Google and the infrastructure being constructed to serve the West Memphis project are separate from Entergy Arkansas’ agreements, operations and regulatory matters involving its data center customers.
WMU currently has one electric line remaining to be constructed specifically for the Google data center. As with the other infrastructure requirements associated with the project, Google has made payments to cover the costs of the infrastructure needed to serve its facility.
To date, WMU said Google has been financially responsible for the utility infrastructure it has constructed or is constructing specifically for the data center. This approach will continue as WMU completes the remaining infrastructure required for the project.
Google broke ground on a $4 billion, 1,000-acre data center campus last October.
Google is paying Entergy to build a solar power plant near Pine Bluff that will power the West Memphis data center. Entergy said that despite reports to the contrary, Google is paying approximately $2.1 billion over 20 years under its agreement with Entergy Arkansas, with most of that amount going toward the Pine Bluff solar farm.
