JOE ARNOLD

Known for more than 60 years as the home of uranium enrichment, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is being prepared for a new national mission. And Kentucky’s electric cooperatives are ready to answer the call.

Plans call for more than $100 billion in private investment in the newly branded Paducah American Energy Hub, including new natural-gas generation and battery storage designed to serve a 600-acre data center campus while also supporting the regional electric grid.

Electric cooperatives are key partners. Big Rivers Electric Corporation would provide wholesale electric service, while Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative would deliver retail service.

“This has been in the making for over a decade,” Jackson Purchase Energy President and CEO Greg Grissom told a crowd of local workers, elected leaders, industry representatives and electric co-op board members at the July 29 project announcement. “Almost every individual in this room had some piece of it. This is true collaboration, true community spirit, and we all win.”

The scope of the project was underscored by the presence of U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

“We need to be able to build big things in America,” Wright says before walking through the crowd of the site’s workers, many wearing yellow safety vests and hard hats. “We need to be able to re-shore jobs and opportunity to American workers and American families. We need to lower costs so it’s easier for families to pay their bills. And along with that, as many mechanisms possible to raise wages.”

The development is projected to create approximately 8,000 construction jobs and more than 600 permanent operations jobs. Data center and battery operations could begin as early as 2028, with electric generation added in stages as the campus grows.

For Western Kentucky’s electric cooperatives, however, the size of the investment is only part of the story. Just as important is how the project is structured to protect the people already served by the system.

“At Big Rivers, we have three guiding principles when it comes to data center development,” says Don Gulley, president and CEO of Big Rivers. “Number one, we want to make sure that we protect our member consumers. Those are the people out there on the end of the line. Number two, we want to make sure that we add value back to our member owners. And number three, we want to ensure that there’s a long-term reliability solution.”

Big Rivers is the member-owned, not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative supplying wholesale power to Jackson Purchase Energy, Kenergy Corp. and Meade County RECC. Jackson Purchase Energy, headquartered in Paducah, serves more than 23,000 consumer-members in six Western Kentucky counties.

Their responsibilities reflect the cooperative model: study the project carefully, assign costs fairly, maintain reliable service and protect existing members from paying for infrastructure created by a single large customer. Kentucky’s electric cooperatives use contracts, rates, security provisions and regulatory review to place project-related costs and risks on the large-load customer rather than existing homes, farms and businesses.

“Our members count on us to protect them from risk while planning boldly for the future,” Gulley says. “We believe this project will provide significant benefits to our members without compromising the affordability or reliability of their electricity.

“The infrastructure investments required for this project will strengthen reliability, open opportunities for new generation resources and position Western Kentucky as a technology leader.”

The proposed power service agreement is subject to review by the Kentucky Public Service Commission. Project partners say the campus will pay for the new infrastructure and generation needed to serve it, consistent with the federal Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

“And that’s exactly how economic growth should work, creating jobs, expanding energy production, and benefiting the entire community,” Congressman Andy Barr explained at the event. “And that’s why this site was the right choice.”

The former uranium enrichment site is already equipped with transmission capacity, water infrastructure, fiber connectivity, roads and land ready to support a project of this magnitude. That existing infrastructure significantly accelerates timelines to begin work on the development. 

“Not every community is the right fit for a project like this, nor should they be,” Barr adds. “These projects should never be forced on communities that don’t want them. But Paducah is different. This community embraced this opportunity. This site already has the infrastructure, the workforce, the history, and the vision to become one of America’s premier energy and AI hubs.”

Brookfield, one of the world’s largest investors in the AI infrastructure value chain, would build, finance, and operate the data center. NextEra Energy Resources, the largest energy infrastructure builder in the U.S., would be responsible for building and supplying the energy infrastructure.

John Ketchum, chairman, president and CEO of NextEra Energy, calls the project a model for serving major new electric loads.

“Everyday Americans should not have to pay for it,” Ketchum said. “Large-load customers should bring their own solution. And that’s exactly what’s happening here in Paducah.”

“As a member-owned cooperative, our priority is always the people and communities we serve,” Grissom says. “Projects like this have the potential to bring meaningful economic development to our region while safeguarding the electricity our members depend on every day.”

Recalling the difference Western Kentucky made in winning the Cold War, Wright warns that AI leadership will help determine economic and strategic power for decades.

“If China leads the way in artificial intelligence, they will be the dominant power in the world in the decades and century ahead,” Wright says. “I know this community, the state of Kentucky and this community of Paducah is going to lead the way on reviving that American dream.”