The city of Rochelle and Rochelle Municipal Utilities are in “serious talks” with a developer about a data center locating within city limits in the near future, City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said Wednesday.

A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.

DeKalb recently saw the addition of a 2.3 million-square-foot Meta data center worth over $1 billion. Land near the Byron nuclear plant also recently was rezoned to industrial use with eyes on a data center development.

In the past year, the city of Rochelle has taken steps to attract a potential data center, including establishing a market-based electric rate for RMU customers who want to secure power directly through wholesale markets while continuing to use RMU as their local provider. The City Council also has amended its zoning code to allow for language on data centers and data warehousing.

Much of a potential agreement with a data center would hinge on RMU and power needs. Data centers are large consumers of electricity.

“There is a lot of interest,” Fiegenschuh said. “We are in serious talks with one developer. At the end of the day, we want to be able to grow, so we don’t want to sell off too much of our power load. We’re having conversations. If we do have an agreement, it will be one that benefits the data center, but more importantly, our utility and the city. We don’t bring something to the City Council unless it benefits RMU and the city first.”

Blake Toliver, RMU superintendent of electric operations, said bringing a data center to Rochelle involves “a lot of moving parts,” including working with ComEd, which is RMU’s tie point into the electric grid, on transmission expansion and reconductoring. RMU’s expenses for that work would be in an agreement with a data center.

RMU’s current largest electric customer is about 10 megawatts. A data center could be five to 10 times larger than that, Toliver said.

“It’s a much larger feat,” Toliver said. “A lot of engineering goes into getting the power there and making sure it’s reliable. Data centers, like any other customer, don’t want to see interruptions or changes in level.”

Fiegenschuh said developers are most concerned with access to power. One would potentially be located within Rochelle’s industrial-zoned areas near one of RMU’s electric substations. The city manager said a development agreement with a data center could come before the City Council in the next couple of months, with a build within three years.

If power-related matters and a development agreement are worked out in the right way, a data center could be large economic windfall for the city and RMU, Fiegenschuh said

“If we do it correctly, it would have a huge financial impact,” Fiegenschuh said. “A data center would pay property taxes based on the value of the lease. Those taxes would go to all the taxing districts. The facility wouldn’t bring a lot of people into the community and schools, but the schools and all the taxing districts get a portion of their property taxes.

”And if we do it right, it provides more load and more revenue for RMU. We would charge them a utility tax that would help fund our roads and storm sewer.”

RMU’s water department also would play into a data center development. Data centers are large users of water. Toliver said newer data centers are using closed-loop cooling systems that recycle the same water internally to keep systems cool, which has lowered the effects of wastewater treatment. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day still would be used by a data center, he said.

Toliver said a multifaceted approach has been required for preliminary work on a data center locating in Rochelle.

“It’s just about making sure all the right players are in the room when you’re having these discussions,” Toliver said. “Anytime we’re having these discussions, our engineering firm is involved, along with legal and our power marketing folks. For something new that’s 2 or 3 megawatts, that’s easy, and it’s what we deal with every day. When you’re talking 50 to 100 megawatts, that’s not something we see every day.”