State officials have rescinded a violation notice previously issued on developer Fundamental Data LLC, concluding that the company’s plans in Tucker County remain conceptual.
It’s unclear whether Fundamental Data even intends to pursue a High Impact Data Center as defined under state law, Nick Preservati, director of the state Office of Energy, acknowledged today in a letter to the company.
“Since the project is still in the conceptual phase and there is a legitimate possibility that neither the power component nor the data component will eventually invoke the requirements of H.B. 2014, it is not evident that Fundamental is aware that its Ridgeline Project will satisfy the definition of a HIDC,” Preservati wrote.
The four-page letter uses the word “conceptual” to describe the project eight times.
To elaborate on that point, the letter by Preservati strongly suggests that even though Fundamental has pursued a state air quality permit, the company does not appear to have property in the proposed Tucker County development area.
The state energy office, he wrote, “conducted a search of the deeds and other records within the Office of the Tucker County Commission and did not find any property in Tucker County owned by Fundamental Data, LLC or any of its affiliated companies.”
That casts doubt on whether the project is actually subject to a definition in state law that a High Impact Data Center “consists of one or more parcels in this state … owned, operated or leased’ by the developer.
Fundamental Data’s proposed development in the Canaan Valley area is known as the Ridgeline Facility, a controversial project described as featuring a 785-megawatt gas-fired power plant.
It is not one one of the High Impact Data Center 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.
Correspondence from earlier this month showed the state’s contention that Fundamental missed a mandatory 30-day window to certify as a High Impact Data Center, a designation triggered by significant power demands and infrastructure scale.
Officials from Fundamental had provided detail about their vision for the project during a town hall event, and to state officials that description matched the requirements to set the clock on officially certifying as a High Impact Data Center.
Fundamental quickly responded by formally rejecting the claim, saying the project represents power generation rather than data center operation and asserting that the state has no legal authority to impose a ten-day filing deadline.
That back-and-forth continued with more correspondence and telephone calls.
Fundamental on June 30 wrote that the plan is not yet definite enough to meet the parameters of a High Impact Data Center and said the company will notify the state “when that awareness is reached” about what the project actually is.
“The petition process requires a sworn statement that the Petitioner meets the High Impact Data Center definition,” wrote Casey Chapman, who describes himself as a responsible individual for Fundamental Data.
“It would not be right to submit that sworn statement unless we are certain the facts within it are true. Those facts have not been established, and we cannot file until they are.”
Chapman is the owner of a construction and development business called CASECO in Purcellville, Va., typically involved with residential and commercial properties.
Preservati wrote in his most recent letter that in a telephone conversation this past Friday, Chapman “stated that Fundamental has not yet made a decision regarding the design and development of its Ridgeline Project.
“You state that Fundamental is considering several “great options and opportunities” regarding the project and that some of those options likely implicate H.B. 2014 while others do not.”
Then in a Monday telephone conversation, Preservati wrote that Chapman characterized comments at the town hall last month as “not meant to convey that a final decision had been made regarding the power generation or the data center portion of the project.
“You acknowledged that both portions of the proposed project remain in the ‘conceptual phase’ and there is a possibility that Fundamental’s final plans for the Ridgeline Project will not implicate H.B.2014.”
Preservati concluded his letter by noting that the recission of the violation notice does not mean that the Ridgeline project is exempt from the High Impact Data Center law. The energy director said that if Fundamental decides to move ahead with a data center with a microgrid then it should continue to follow state law.
“The Department strongly encourages Fundamental to not wait to engage with it and the local community as it continues to develop its Ridgeline Project,” Preservati wrote.