Data center developer looks west, backs power upgrades near Fargo • North Dakota Monitor

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 information 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 overlaying the upgrades advantages the grid and different prospects 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 undertaking is about for April 2 in Fargo. Applied Digital declined to touch upon the undertaking and listening to.

Meanwhile, the corporate has held an informational assembly in Center in Oliver County northwest of Bismarck about an enlargement there.

AI driving data center demand at accelerating pace

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 huge power use, making some residents nervous about having such a improvement 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 power 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 pm March 30 on the Stanton Civic Center.

Applied Digital’s first tasks in North Dakota had 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 — much like a automotive’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 12 months.

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 an announcement after the moratorium vote.

Minnkota’s Fladhammer stated Applied Digital’s presence near Fargo means prospects will not must pay for as many upgrades to the power grid, upgrades he stated the realm will want even with out a big load like an information 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 information center.

The undertaking, formally referred to as the Agassiz Transmission Line and Substation, will probably be on property already owned by Minnkota.

Minnkota will present electrical power to Cass County Electric Cooperative, which sells the power to the information center. Paul Matthys, president and CEO for the co-op, stated the information 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 anticipated to wish between 2 and a couple of.5 megawatts — which is dwarfed by the 280 megawatts the information center will want.

Matthys stated Applied Digital can be paying the same charge to different massive prospects. He stated the information center can have diesel mills 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. I’ve described the information center as “first off and last on” if there’s a disruption.

Matthys stated the information center won’t drive up charges for current prospects. He stated Cass County Electric is considered one of 11 co-ops that buys from Minnkota and wishes new prospects to assist pay for upgrades to getting older infrastructure. That infrastructure consists of coal plants in western North Dakota that supplied many of the power for Minnkota.

But current prospects 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.

Critics of knowledge facilities have pointed to rising electrical charges in different areas. President Donald Trump earlier this month introduced the Ratepayer Protection Pledgewith the purpose of guaranteeing inexpensive electrical energy and grid reliability.

It says tech giants comparable to 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 comparable to 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 will be constructed or {the electrical} charges for patrons of co-ops such Cass County Electric.

Applied Digital’s Ellendale web site is present process an enlargement into an AI knowledge center, referred to as Polaris Forge I. The Harwood web site is called Polaris Forge II.

Among Applied Digital’s largest introduced prospects are CoreWeavean AI computing firm based mostly in New Jersey, and Oracle based mostly in Texas.

The Harwood undertaking 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 information 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 electricity 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 accomplished by September.

Applied Digital contractors labored by means of the winter on the information center. It is anticipated to be in full business operation in early 2027. It is anticipated to make use of about 200 individuals.

Reach North Dakota Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach at [email protected].