According to local media reports, the proposed construction of a computer data centre in the Canadian city of Ottawa has been thwarted because the city could not ensure the facility would be supplied with the electrical power it needs.
Addressing, the Ottawa City Council City Engineer Dave Noble, who spearheads the city's economic development efforts said the city has been approached in the last few weeks by a company seeking to build a computer data center in the city, but he had to inform the developers that the project could not happen in Ottawa, as the city's electricity provider, AmerenIP, could not meet the center's demand for 25MW of power, needed to power thousands of computers and the air conditioning units needed to keep them cool.
"That's four or five times what the largest users of electricity in the city use right now," said Noble. "That's more than Pilkington, or anybody else."
However, Noble believes the issues of a secure and reliable power supply could have been averted if Ameren had in place the controversy-plagued high transmission lines the company has been planning since the summer.
Ameren filed a petition with the Illinois Commerce Commission in early November seeking permission to string 138,000-volt lines from La Salle to Wedron, and from Wedron to Ottawa.
The proposal, however, has drawn steadfast opposition from a group of local residents, organized under the banner of SHOCK, or Safety and Health of Our Community and Kids.
Ameren hopes to begin work quickly, with June 2008 as the first date the lines could go into service.