To all of those utility economic development representatives who wonder whether attracting new data center builds is worthwhile, note that Data Foundry has announced a new campus in Houston that at build out will draw 50 MW.
Both Data Center Dynamics and Data Center Knowledge have reports on the planned collocation development, but neither provides any information on what energy rate Data Foundry will be paying, or whether any utility construction credits or tax incentives are in the mix.
Texas is the bastion of deregulated utility markets, so in Houston you pay CenterPoint Energy for transmission and distribution services, but are free to select your energy provider (with TXU and Reliant the market leaders). Knocking around websites I found small commercial rate quotes as low as 6.5 cents per kWh, but I expect Data Foundry will pay well south of that rate.
As far as tax breaks go, the New York Times reports that Texas is the nationwide leader in corporate tax subsidies, so Data Foundry may be getting some breaks, like property tax forbearance. But as I’ve noted before, the most tempting tax break is avoiding sales taxes on IT equipment purchases – a benefit that would flow directly to Data Foundry’s tenants.
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