State officials and the company planning a data center campus and power plant in Tucker County are in a disagreement over whether the project has reached the point that it should be seeking official state certification.
A proposed data center development in the Canaan Valley area is known as the Ridgeline Facility, a controversial project featuring a 785-megawatt gas-fired power plant.
It is not one one of the projects that West Virginia has certified so far.
The two that have been certified by the state are:
— A $4 billion, 548-acre campus in Berkeley County being spearheaded by the development company Penzance that is envisioned to span 1.9 million square feet and support at least 600 megawatts of artificial intelligence computing capacity.
— Google’s Putnam County data center, a multibillion-dollar campus located in Buffalo, where the tech giant has acquired land and committed to powering the facility with 100% renewable or zero-emission electricity.
The state’s framework for data center development is HB 2014, which introduced a Certified Microgrid Program and a High Impact Data Center Program for West Virginia.
According to the legislation, a data center is required to compare its current or planned operations against the legal definition of a “high impact data center” and notify the Division of Economic Development if it meets or expects to meet that definition.
Specific penalties, such as fines or legal sanctions, for non-compliance are not clear.
Correspondence obtained by MetroNews shows that the state contends the company missed a mandatory 30-day window to certify as a High Impact Data Center, a designation triggered by significant power demands and infrastructure scale.
Fundamental Data LLC responded by formally rejecting the claim, saying they are merely generation developers rather than data center operators and asserting that the state has no legal authority to impose a ten-day filing deadline.
The dispute originated May 18 when representatives of Fundamental Data LLC attended an in-person meeting in Tucker County at the invitation of the state Office of Energy.
The gathering included the mayors of Thomas and Davis as well as members of the Tucker County Commission plus representatives from the citizens group Tucker United and members of the public.
STATE OF MINDS: Hoppy Kercheval interviews Amy Margolies, executive director of Tucker United
During the meeting, the company described details of the Ridgeline project that led state officials to believe it meets the definition of a High Impact Data Center in line with state code.
The criteria include consisting of one or more parcels within West Virginia; being owned, operated, or leased by the entity; being used to house and operate equipment that processes data; having a critical IT load of 90MW or higher; and being placed into service on or after July 1, 2025.
Under the criteria in code, state officials concluded that Fundamental Data should have submitted its request for certification within 30 days of providing the description in the May 18 meeting.
“We’ve been trying to work with them to say, ‘OK, based upon those representations, it appears to us you have to file certification,’ and we’re in the process of that. They do not agree with that, and we’re working through that process,” Nick Preservati, deputy secretary for the state Department of Energy said Friday on MetroNews Talkline.
State Deputy Commerce Secretary says Fundamental Data didn’t apply for certification in Tucker County as required under legislative rules
On Talkline, Nick Preservati said:
“There’s not a single data center (project) that has filed an application for certification in Tucker… pic.twitter.com/kxWA6M0bws
— T.J. Meadows, Co-Host MetroNews Talkline (@TJMeadows304) June 21, 2026
The Department of Commerce sent a letter dated June 18 to relay the assessment that the project is out of alignment with the certification requirement in state code and to ask Fundamental Data to clarify.
The same day, Casey Chapman of Fundamental Data sent a response, saying the state is incorrect.
Mainly, Chapman’s letter contended Fundamental Data does not represent a data center developer. Instead, Chapman wrote, the company aims to develop electric generation that could be attractive to data center companies.
“The data centers contemplated for the project remain conceptual, and what is ultimately built will be determined by the eventual users of the power we generate,” Chapman wrote, adding that those users might or might not qualify as data centers under the state’s definition.
Chapman agreed that aspects of state law on Certified Microgrid Districts could apply to the Ridgeline project. But he said that section of code contains no 30-day countdown or penalty.
Chapman also took issue with how the dispute arose, saying Fundamental Data had attended the meeting and talked openly about the project in good faith.
“The Department now seeks to treat that participation as the predicate for a regulatory violation,” Chapman wrote, saying a company’s candor at a public forum that the agency convened should not be turned into the trigger for an enforcement action.
“That is not how we would expect the State to treat a company that has chosen to invest in West Virginia at no cost or risk to its residents, and we are confident it is not the position the Department wishes to take on reflection.”
Chapman requested that the Department of Commerce confirm in writing that no violation finding has been made and that no compliance deadline is currently running against Fundamental Data. “We remain willing to engage with the Department and all relevant state agencies in good faith,” he wrote.
Preservati, on Talkline, indicated the matter remains under review.
“We’re digging into that and working through that,” he said.