Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. believes his city is a good place for data center development, but admitted there are still some drawbacks and unanswered questions. During last week's Mayor's Night Out event, McDermott was asked what steps the city's taken to ensure the Digital Crossroad development won't strain the electric grid or lead to higher utility rates.
The mayor felt its location at the former State Line Generating Plant is well-suited for a data center, since it's somewhat isolated, surrounded by water and close to Chicago. But he said questions about electricity are preventing a major deal from moving ahead.
"It's literally perfect, so we're holding out," McDermott said. "We want something big, and we've got a big fish. It's nibbling right now, but we can't close the deal until we know what's going to happen with power."
McDermott pointed to NIPSCO shutting down coal plants, at a time when data centers are leading to greater demand. While power itself may not be available yet, McDermott felt Hammond has the grid in place to get it there. He was skeptical about proposals to put data centers in less industrial areas.
"The data center we're talking about in Hammond draws more power than two steel mills. One little data center — than two steel mills. So they have to have infrastructure in place like you're building a steel mill. We do have that here," McDermott said.
Meanwhile, Chief of Staff Scott Miller downplayed concerns about the data center's water consumption. "It's like a radiator," Miller explained. "If you're not familiar, basically, it brings in Lake Michigan water to cool the servers that are in there and puts it back out. It's less than a one-degree temperature difference."
McDermott also acknowledged that data centers don't bring in as many high-paying permanent jobs as he might like, and the Digital Crossroad development reduces public access to the lakefront. Still, he maintained that it doesn't stand in the way of the Marquette Greenway, a planned 60-mile trail from Chicago to Michigan.
"Marquette plan was access," McDermott said. "You have access. You can go there right now. I've done it a hundred times."
He said data centers need a lot of security, due to potential terror threats.
