Amazon Web Services will hold an open house tomorrow at the Shreveport Convention Center to discuss the three data centers they are building in the Shreveport-Bossier area. There are concerns about how much water and electricity the facilities will use. AWS Vice President of Economic Development Roger Wehner says the data centers will use water for cooling only when temperatures climb above 85 degrees – which he says is expected to happen less than 13% of the year.
“When we add just that little bit of water that we’ll use, that will reduce our energy demand by 25 to 35% by during that peak load, reducing the total load on the grid, Wehner explained.
Watchdog and local advocacy groups have also raised concerns that residential utility customers could end up indirectly paying for major upgrades to the electric grid. But Wehner says Amazon will cover the cost of the energy improvements needed for its data centers.
“Our contract with SWEPCO and our commitment to them, and them to us, is to not impact rate payers. We are paying 100% of costs associated with this service, and they will not show up on the bills of customers,” Wehner noted.
Amazon also plans to invest up to $400 million in public water infrastructure. The company is spending $18 billion to build the three data center campuses, which are expected to create more than 700 permanent jobs. Wehner says Amazon will focus on hiring workers from the local community.
“(We are) super-committed to building our contractor and vendor base locally, as well as our workforce locally, so we’re investing in education workforce development,” Wehner said.
And Wehner says you don’t necessarily need a four-year college degree to work at a data center. He says an associate degree will qualify applicants for many of the jobs.
The open house will run from 4 to 8 PM.