“It’s very typical for this type of project to have power studies, impact analysis that take time to do. But it’s also a combination of things,” said developer Doug Swain of Logistix.
The total investment of this project, which includes the computers, servers and network systems inside the building and the underground infrastructure and other construction outside, Swain said, will exceed $1 billion.
The two studies being conducted are expected to be completed in December and March before the two-story building with a 160,000-square-foot footprint begins construction, according to city documents.
The city of Hamilton in November 2024 approved Logistix to build a data center at 1380 University Boulevard, just northeast of Miami University Regional in Hamilton and west of South Hamilton Crossing. It’s on a 15-acre site, which is now mostly wooded.
The studies are necessary because a data center requires a lot of power to operate. While the physical structure houses computer systems, servers and networking equipment that store a company’s critical data and applications, the supply lines and infrastructure need to carry the added electric load.
And Hamilton, which runs the city-owned utility, must determine how much more power it needs to generate to supply that added electric load.
Hamilton Executive Director of Infrastructure Edwin Porter called this specific electric service request a “high-density large load.”
He said this analysis proceeds in several stages, and the process is conducted serially as it incorporates a load study, a system impact study, a facilities study and development of a facilities agreement.
“Each of these analyses depends to a large extent on the completion of the analyses that precede it,” Porter said, adding that Hamilton’s electric utility is one of a few agencies involved in the studies.
In addition to the power studies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency also has to sign off on the project as part of the property is in a flood plain.
Hamilton’s ordinance requires that a project receiving a conditional use must be activated within six months — a very short turnaround for a complex project that relies on extra logistical and due diligence, including a federal agency signing off on it — the planning commission extended the zoning until Dec. 31, 2026.
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