The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved a 130-megawatt battery energy storage facility in Pike County last week. The Crosstrack Energy Storage project is part of the energy infrastructure planned to support Google's data center in Monrovia, according to IURC filings.
Citizens Action Coalition Program Director Ben Inskeep said it is one of three projects identified by AES Indiana to help meet the data center’s electricity demands.
“This is only for the first phase of the Google data center,” Inskeep said. “It's only for 390 megawatts, whereas some other filings we've seen by AES Indiana indicate the eventual full size of the data center could be much larger at 1,200 megawatts.”
Inskeep said if the data center expands to its full planned capacity, AES Indiana would need to implement additional energy resources beyond the three planned projects.
“That's creating a real crisis on the grid, where they're driving prices much higher at the wholesale level,” Inskeep said. “They're driving the cost of new power plants much higher because of the demand shock across the market, and as a result, you know there's consumer price increases.”
Neither AES Indiana nor Invenergy, Crosstrack’s parent company, responded to requests for comment.
The battery facility will help expand AES Indiana's generation portfolio, Inskeep said. The storage will not be dedicated exclusively to Google's operations.
Inskeep said the rapid growth of data centers across Indiana is creating new challenges for the state's electric grid.
“We don't have the capability to power massive new energy users without a massive expansion of our existing infrastructure, including new power plants and new transmission lines,” Inskeep said. "It's creating a lot of concern among Hoosiers to see this happen in an unplanned way, kind of this kind of gold rush mentality without a lot of regulation.”
Beyond new power generation, Inskeep said many Monrovia-area residents have expressed concerns about the transmission lines that will be needed to connect the data center to the electric grid.
AES Indiana has not finalized transmission routes, according to IURC filings. Inskeep said the proposed transmission line upgrades are separate from the battery storage projects but will be necessary to serve the data center and maintain grid reliability.
"AES Indiana does have the ability to select their preferred route and move forward with that, including forcing folks to give up their land using eminent domain," Inskeep said. “Eminent domain is supposed to be for projects that benefit the public interest. They're not supposed to be for projects that are benefiting the private interest of a $1 trillion company at the expense of the general public.”