Data center developer Applied Digital is investing $75 million in power system upgrades in japanese North Dakota because it looks to increase into the western a part of the state.
Applied Digital will cowl the price of {an electrical} substation and high-voltage powerline that it wants for the info center it’s constructing near Interstate 29 between Fargo and Harwood.
Minnkota Power Cooperative will personal and function the brand new services. A Minnkota spokesperson stated Applied Digital’s masking the upgrades advantages the grid and different clients within the area.
“That infrastructure provides tremendous benefit to the southern Red River Valley,” Ben Fladhammer stated in an interview.
A Public Service Commission public listening to on the power mission is about for April 2 in Fargo. Applied Digital declined to touch upon the mission and listening to.
Meanwhile, the corporate has held an informational assembly in Center in Oliver County northwest of Bismarck about an growth there.
A day after that assembly, the Oliver County Commission voted to place a 180-day moratorium on knowledge facilities because it develops guidelines about the place such developments can go. Some residents referred to as for an extended moratorium, as much as three years.
Data facilities have been blamed for noise air pollution, exorbitant water use and driving up utility payments with their large power use, making some residents nervous about having such a growth for a neighbor.
Mike Berg farms in Oliver and Mercer counties, together with his dwelling in Mercer, the place Basin Electric Power Cooperative and wind vitality firm NextEra have their very own plans for a data center.
Mercer County earlier this month handed a one-year moratorium on knowledge facilities.
Berg favors the moratoriums to “provide time for proper planning and guardrails for industry and safeguards for residents.”
A public assembly on Basin Electric’s River Run Energy Center is about for 5-8 p.m. March 30 within the Stanton Civic Center.
Applied Digital’s first tasks in North Dakota have been air-cooled services for cryptocurrency mining at Ellendale and Jamestown. Its new bigger knowledge facilities for synthetic intelligence at Ellendale and Harwood will use a water-cooling system — just like a automobile’s radiator — to maintain banks of computer systems from overheating. By being a closed-loop system with a coolant fluid introduced in by truck, its knowledge facilities use little or no water, firm officers advised individuals at conferences in Harwood final yr.
The $3 billion Harwood facility will home computer systems offering synthetic intelligence, however wants an enormous quantity of electrical power — about 280 megawatts — to do it.
Oliver County is within the coronary heart of North Dakota coal nation and is dwelling to coal-fired power vegetation in addition to power-generating wind farms.
“Applied Digital continues to monitor opportunities throughout North Dakota, including in the Oliver County area, where the right conditions exist for long-term investment,” Applied Digital stated in a press release after the moratorium vote.
Minnkota’s Fladhammer stated Applied Digital’s presence near Fargo means clients gained’t should pay for as many upgrades to the power grid, upgrades he stated the world will want even with out a big load like a knowledge center. Without the Applied Digital funding, these prices “would have to be covered by homes, farms, schools and businesses.”
Minnkota’s permit application requires a substation west of Interstate 29 north of Fargo and a 345-kilowatt powerline going north a few mile and crossing the interstate to the info center.
The mission, formally referred to as the Agassiz Transmission Line and Substation, might be on property already owned by Minnkota.
Minnkota will present electrical power to Cass County Electric Cooperative, which sells the power to the info center. Paul Matthys, president and CEO for the co-op, stated the info center would about double the height demand for power from the co-op.
Cass County Electric is anticipating one other massive load buyer, the Abercrombie Dairy operated by Minnesota-based Riverview in Richland County. The 12,500-cow dairy is predicted to want between 2 and a pair of.5 megawatts — which is dwarfed by the 280 megawatts the info center will want.
Matthys stated Applied Digital could be paying a price just like different massive clients. He stated the info center may have diesel turbines to produce power if a storm or spike in power demand forces the co-op to divert power elsewhere.
“They know that if we ask them to curtail their load that they’re going to have to do so,” Matthys stated. He described the info center as “first off and last on” if there’s a disruption.
Matthys stated the info center won’t drive up charges for present clients. He stated Cass County Electric is certainly one of 11 co-ops that buys from Minnkota and desires new clients to assist pay for upgrades to getting old infrastructure. That infrastructure consists of coal plants in western North Dakota that present many of the power for Minnkota.
But present clients shouldn’t be anticipated to pay for upgrades wanted for a big buyer like Applied Digital, he stated.
“We have right now, the ability to serve that data center without disrupting our members, without disrupting the entire system or the grid,” Matthys stated.
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Critics of information facilities have pointed to rising electrical charges in different areas. President Donald Trump earlier this month introduced the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, with the aim of guaranteeing inexpensive electrical energy and grid reliability.
It says tech giants reminiscent of Amazon, Google and Meta will “build, bring, or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for their data centers.”
North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Hoffart referenced the White House pledge at a gathering earlier this month. The company regulates transmission line siting and electrical charges for personal corporations reminiscent of Xcel, Montana-Dakota Utilities and Otter Tail Power.
“I know that we’ll be watching this closely as it is rolled out,” she stated of the Trump administration initiative.
The Public Service Commission doesn’t have authority over the place knowledge facilities may be constructed or {the electrical} charges for purchasers of co-ops such Cass County Electric.
Applied Digital’s Ellendale website is present process an growth into an AI knowledge center, referred to as Polaris Forge I. The Harwood website is called Polaris Forge II.
Among Applied Digital’s largest introduced clients are CoreWeave, an AI computing firm primarily based in New Jersey, and Oracle primarily based in Texas.
The Harwood mission met some resistance from Harwood and Fargo-area residents when it was introduced in August 2025.
The Dakota Resource Council, a North Dakota-based environmental advocacy group, stated it held a gathering on the info center in Harwood in February with about 100 attendees.
“DRC is not opposed to data centers, but the organization believes the projects should be transparent, fairly structured, and designed to benefit the rural communities that host them,” the group’s govt director, Scott Skokos, stated in an e mail.
“DRC’s primary concern is that cooperative member-owners — farmers, ranchers, and rural residents — should not end up paying higher electric rates or assuming financial risk to support extremely large corporate electricity users,” he stated.
If accepted by the PSC, work on the substation and powerline may start in April and be full by September.
Applied Digital contractors labored by the winter on the info center. It is predicted to be in full industrial operation in early 2027. It is predicted to make use of about 200 individuals.
Reach North Dakota Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach at [email protected].
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