ATHENS-. The 141-acre on Interstate 65 at mile marker 347, Braly Site in Athens, Alabama, has been named as a Primary site that is ready to recruit data centers. The Braly site is strategically located on Interstate 65, south of the interchange at Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road with a majority of the site positioned with direct interstate frontage.
The Tennessee Valley Authority hired Chicago-based Deloitte Consulting to identify and evaluate potential data centers sites in the 80,000 square-mile TVA.The study is broken into two phases. The first phase focused on identifying multi-scale data center sites (as seen in the map below). The second phase is an effort to locate large-scale data center sites with especially robust power capabilities.
What Is a Data Center?
A datacenter is a centralized repository, either physical or virtual, for the storage, management, and dissemination of data and information. The facility is used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Competitive electric rates
Data centers and technology companies meeting the following criteria may be eligible for TVA’s most competitive rates:
- Power demand over 1,000 kilowatts
- Average monthly load factor of 80 percent or higher
- Listed in an eligible NAICS code
2007 NAICS codes
- 5182 – Data processing, hosting, and related services, and web search portals
- 522320 – Financial transactions processing, reserve, and clearinghouse activities
- 541214 – Payroll services
2002 NAICS code
- 5181 – Internet service providers
World-class reliability and rates, and expanding capacity
- TVA’s transmission system ranks in the top 10 percent of U.S. utilities.
- The system has achieved 99.999 percent reliability every year since 2000, surpassing Tier IV data center standards.
- TVA is the transmission system reliability coordinator for several neighboring utilities covering parts of 11 states.
- The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has praised TVA’s culture of reliability.
- TVA restarted the nation’s first nuclear generating unit to go online in this century at Browns Ferry, Ala., and is in the process of completing a new nuclear unit at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee.
- TVA’s diverse power supply mix includes renewable resources and hydroelectric.
Advantages
- Robust telecommunications connectivity, including long-haul fiber-optic from multiple carriers
- Abundant water resources
- Low business and personal taxation rates
- Ample supply of well-educated workers from 83 four-year colleges and universities in the Tennessee Valley
- Located within 500 miles of 75 percent of the U.S. population
- Convenient access to commercial airports and interstates
- Low risk of natural disasters
