< Previous112 SEPTEMBER 2024 S I T E S EL E C T I O N T OP UTILITIES IN EC ONOMIC DEVEL OPMENT Power Provision Is Just the Beginning Each year, via data gathered from an annual questionnaire in addition to our staff’s own research into utilities with active economic development departments, Site Selection recognizes the Top Utilities in economic development based on corporate end- user project activity in their regions. With a few exceptions, job creation totals are down this year from the year before, with most capex figures lower or holding steady. This could be related to the extreme load demand on the U.S. power grid from the surfeit of energy- sucking megaprojects. This year, in addition to asking traditional questions about project attraction, capital investment, job creation and services, we asked one extra question: “Power provision is vying with workforce as the most pressing issue for industrial companies nationwide amid a glut of major industrial facility projects (data centers, semiconductor fabs, EV/ battery supply chain, etc.). How is your utility’s economic development team working with operations and external stakeholders to address these concerns?” The answers, like the robust day-to- day solutions from this select group of winners, can be compelling. Here is a sampling from their candid, detailed responses (scan the QR code to the left to access bonus content at siteselection. com in early September in conjunction with the posting of this story): • Consumers Energy: “More electric vehicle (EV) and EV component manufacturers and other energy-intensive industries need more sites quicker than ever. The challenge is identifying and categorizing sites to give prospective energy-intensive businesses a clearer up-to-the-minute picture of available sites and their attributes.” • Duke Energy: “The company is currently focusing on large load projects that have a customer commitment or advanced stage of engagement, or where the company’s service area is being seriously considered and shortlisted. By utilizing take-or-pay clauses that require new large load customers to agree to pay for a minimum amount of energy upfront no matter how much they end up using, they are also ensuring other customers are protecting from the cost of this demand.” • Alliant Energy: “Supply chain challenges continue to be seen across the utility industry. Orders for equipment that took six months to fulfill in 2020 now take 24-80 months. We expect delays to continue due to labor, raw material and component shortages. Alliant Energy Director of Supply Chain Management David Watkins said, ‘Alliant Energy is taking significant actions to ensure we have an adequate supply of critical equipment to deliver the energy services our current and future customers rely on.” In the meantime, here are the 2024 Top Utilities in Economic Development, who keep their project pipelines and channels of community goodwill flowing as reliably as their power. by ADAM BRUNS adam.bruns@siteselection.com TO ACCESS BONUS CONTENT SCAN114 SEPTEMBER 2024 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Corporate facility investment: $10.1 billion Jobs created: 4,448 Population & Territory: 4.1 million in the City of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties plus a portion of York County Highlights: A new package called “Connecting your Business” includes information for developers on how to request electricity and natural gas service, PECO’s large load process, relocation of existing electric service and making the construction area safe. The PECO team also has instituted a program to proactively reach out to developers of projects in underserved areas of its service territory. “Like many other electric utilities, we have had to adapt to an unprecedented number of requests for large amounts of power, primarily for potential data centers,” the team says. “PECO Economic Development brings together and coordinates all the key functions to address these large load opportunities, including Transmission Planning, Transmission & Substations, Distribution Capacity Planning, Project Management and Real Estate. We have developed a Large Load Process to provide a guide for how to address these projects, which require a connection at transmission voltage. We are also constantly benchmarking and learning from our peer utilities on best practices to meet the needs of these data center developers and end users.” PECO, an Exelon Company Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Casey McCourt, S E D S www.peco.com NOR TH EA ST Corporate facility investment: $35,037,575,000 Jobs created: 10,416 Population & Territory: 12.4 million across a 200,000-square-mile service area covering nearly 350 counties in 11 states served by seven electric utility operating companies. Highlights: Job creation was up by more than 1,700 jobs year over year while capex grew by $7 billion. “As a result of several noteworthy projects in 2023, AEP and our communities will impact the world’s economy for years to come,” writes Timothy Wells, including LNG, ammonia and hydrogen from several large investments in Texas; energizing the EV transition with a new large-scale battery production facility in Indiana, a lithium refi ning operation in Texas, and a battery recycling facility in Oklahoma; new large-scale solar panel manufacturing facilities announced in Oklahoma and Ohio; and vertically grown lettuce out of SWEPCO Texas. “These are just a few highlights from 92 new and existing customer projects from 2023,” he says, whose 10,416 direct jobs will be augmented by an additional 14,900 indirect and induced jobs. “Electricity availability, capacity and cost have become far more signifi cant factors in the location decisions companies are making. Leveraging our local fi eld knowledge, detailed mapping capabilities and analytical insights, we are focused on continually growing and marketing a broad portfolio of available industrial properties. We proactively promote over 150 properties across our footprint, many of which are marketed as development-ready industrial properties.” American Electric Power Columbus, Ohio Timothy J. Wells, V P, S, E B D www.aep.com/economic-development EA ST NOR TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $15,215,500,000 Jobs created: 16,692 Population & Territory: 20 million in 16 states (7 million customers) Highlights: A new economic development website highlights “the robust economic growth, strong demographic trends and advanced infrastructure that make the regions we serve great places for business,” writes Jen Kostyniuk. “Visitors can fi nd the best site for their next project, discover certifi ed sites to help with an expansion and read about recent success stories we are proud to be a part of. It also connects prospective customers to the most important part of the process: the people. We also worked closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to support the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program and refi ned the narrative to answer: Why Dominion Energy and Why Virginia?” In response to the power provision question, she says, “Getting to the table early and often is key. Our dedicated economic development experts stay in contact with our partners to understand energy needs and develop creative solutions. An ‘all of the above’ mix is needed to close the power gap, and we have successfully navigated similar challenges before. As in the past, the commonsense solution involves a balanced, diverse mix of energy sources that are reliable, a ordable and increasingly clean.” Dominion Energy Richmond, Virginia Jen Kostyniuk, D E D www.dominionenergy.com/economic-development SOU TH AT LA NT IC116 SEPTEMBER 2024 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Corporate facility investment: $9.2 billion Jobs created: 12,200 Population & Territory: 10 million across 80,000 square miles in portions of seven states, including most of Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia Highlights: TVA, writes Marketing Coordinator Joanna Muscatello, is the energy source behind nearly every business venture in its seven-state region. And “behind every new venture is a unique collaboration of specialized services provided by TVA Economic Development. We connect industry experts and custom talent-development solutions with a workforce of over 4 million skilled laborers. Our goal is to support innovative community development and the businesses that thrive here.” The Product Development division continues to prove successful for communities via programs like TVA’s InvestPrep, InvestReady and the Certifi ed Megasite program. “These programs are impactful, as they yield time savings and risk minimization for clients. Companies like Georgia Pacifi c, which located in Madison County, Tennessee, marking the largest announcement in the city’s history, and Aluminum Dynamics’s announcement in Lowndes Co., Mississippi, the largest economic development project in the state’s history, are both situated on products of TVA Economic Development product development programs.” Workforce development programs include Workforce Invest, a grant-matching program that provides support for education and workforce training to communities through the local economic development organization. In just two years, the program’s impact has reached across seven states with such activities as welding training for justice-involved individuals and English language learning. Tennessee Valley Authority Nashville, Tennessee John Bradley, S V P, E D tvasites.com SOU TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $2,436,554,845 Jobs created: 4, 497 Population & Territory: 3.4 million (1.3 million customers); LG&E serves 333,000 natural gas and 429,000 electric customers in Louisville/Je erson County and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 566,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and fi ve counties in Virginia, for a total of 98 counties. Highlights: The team at LG&E (Louisville Gas & Electric) and KU (Kentucky Utilities) helped Kentucky rank third in the nation for capital investment in Site Selection’s 2023 Governor’s Cup rankings with early 4,500 new jobs and $2.4 billion of new capital investment, led by manufacturing, announced in their service territories. “The automotive industry, particularly electric vehicle (EV) battery production, is strong in Kentucky,” says John Bevington. “Other traditional sectors continued to grow in 2023, including health care, logistics and distribution, metals, agri-tech, data centers, and food/beverage production. Lastly, with 95% of the world’s bourbon distilled here, the spirits industry is the toast of Kentucky’s economy.” Last year LG&E and KU launched opportunityky.com as a website enhancement to help site selectors and prospects evaluate communities and business parks with GIS mapping and census data. The Opportunity Kentucky Grant also was established to help communities proactively address land and building inventory shortages and also serve as a deal-closing fund, with grants awarded worth nearly $906,000. Also last year, the Opportunity Kentucky credit, a fi ve-year demand reduction incentive also known as the economic development rider, assisted seven companies with $ 2.7 million in credits. LG&E and KU Energy LLC Louisville, Kentucky John Bevington, S D, B E D www.lge-ku.com | www.OpportunityKY.com SOU TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $778,125,071 Jobs created: 1,221 Population & Territory: 1.2 million in 46% of Kentucky’s geography (11,840,717 acres) from the Ohio River to the Tennessee state line Highlights: “Our team has worked very closely with our served communities to develop viable large-scale industrial sites (including the development of four 1,000+-acre Mega Sites) that have had all due diligence performed including insuring all have necessary utility infrastructure in place,” writes Brad Thomas, whose team also stepped up international recruiting with three trips to Germany and Italy last year. Since KTEC restarted its economic development program in January 2015, he says, its cooperatives’ service territories have seen 373 economic development projects bringing more than $12.3 billion in investment, more than 18,100 jobs and a 44% increase in industrial electric load. Last year’s project lineup included a $153 million, 167-job project from EV supplier Hitachi Astemo Americas in Berea; a 200-job, $3 million investment from software company Optomi in Monticello; and a $65 million, 92-job project from aerospace company Safran Landing Systems Kentucky in the northern Kentucky community of Hebron. Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Winchester, Kentucky Brad omas, M E D www.DataIsPower.org SOU TH CE NT RA L118 SEPTEMBER 2024 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Corporate facility investment: 3,485,212,055 Jobs created: 3,584 new jobs Population & Territory: 1 million Highlights: Welcoming nearly as many jobs as the 3,903 it helped attract the year before, Alliant’s team saw project capital investment leap by more than $1.4 billion to nearly $3.5 billion. “In September 2023, we announced Columbia County, Wisconsin, may soon be home to one of the most sustainable, advanced energy storage systems in the country,” writes Coleman Pei er. “Alliant Energy was selected for a grant of up to approximately $30 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s O ce of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) for a proposed 200-megawatt-hour energy storage system” named the Columbia Energy Storage Project. “This highly e cient, zero-emissions, closed loop battery system could power approximately 20,000 Wisconsin homes … The creation of our Federal Funding o ce played a key role in securing this project,” Pei er says. “This dedicated team collaborates with communities and customers to maximize grant opportunities arising from the Infl ation Reduction Act.” Alliant Energy also was active in 2023 shaping new legislation to make Wisconsin attractive to data center projects, resulting in the passage of “one of the most aggressive sales and use tax exemption bills in the industry.” With new exemption and incentives in Wisconsin and Iowa, the industrial parks Alliant Energy proactively developed are ready for large-scale utility projects like data centers, he says, specifi cally Big Cedar Industrial Center in Cedar Rapids and Prairie View Industrial Park in Ames, Iowa, and Beaver Dam Commerce Park in Wisconsin. Alliant Energy Madison, Wisconsin Coleman Pei er, S M, E C D alliantenergy.com/economicdevelopment EA ST NOR TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $ 11,209,863,000 Jobs created: 8,645 Population & Territory: 6.8 million in all 68 counties in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula Highlights: Noteworthy wins included GM’s $4 billion investment to convert its Orion Township plant to EV truck manufacturing and Hemlock Semiconductor’s $375 million investment in Thomas Township. “In 2023, we launched our Reliability Roadmap, a nearly $9 billion investment in reliability and resilience with the goal of ensuring no customer ever goes more than 24 hours without power,” writes Valerie Christo erson. “We are taking steps to trim trees away from power lines, embrace technology and explore burying power lines, all to reduce the number and length of power outages.” According to Darin Buelow, Global Location Strategy Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP, says Christo erson, ‘One of the largest di erentiating factors for Michigan is Consumers Energy. Their proposals are attractive, clear and concisely presented. Consumers Energy answers the next several questions before we can ask them. They listen and allow the customer to drive the conversation. Consumers Energy is one of best in the nation at this process.’ ” Consumers Energy Jackson, Michigan Valerie Christo erson, D E D www.consumersenergy.com/econdev EA ST NOR TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $8.62 billion Jobs created: 4,385 Population & Territory: 9 million people in the northern third of Illinois, including the Chicago metro area. ComEd’s 11,000-square-mile service territory spans over 400+ municipalities and represents 70% of the state’s population Highlights: “Power remains a critical factor in the site selection process,” writes Ed Sitar. To that end ComEd has collected and analyzed over 150 available large land sites in its service territory and then ranked the sites by proximity to existing transmission corridors to determine ease of interconnecting to ComEd’s system with new onsite substations to support large power projects. The resulting 42 top sites were then shared with key real estate brokers, site consultants, and prospective new customers. “In addition, we supported the second wave of Intersect Illinois’ Vetted Sites program with new locations they evaluated and are marketing,” Sitar says. ComEd joined with allies to launch the Illinois Data Center Energy Task Force to signal to the market that Illinois is positioned to support data center investment and create productive dialogue among key stakeholders. “We want to ensure Illinois’ electric grid stays ahead of the large growth curve of the data center industry and avoid challenges that have plagued other areas of the country,” Sitar says. Among other activities, the ComEd team accompanied Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on a trade mission to the United Kingdom, where they convened a clean energy roundtable. Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) Oakbrook Terrace (Chicagoland), Illinois Ed Sitar, S M E D www.comed.com/econdev EA ST NOR TH CE NT RA L120 SEPTEMBER 2024 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Corporate facility investment: $1.7 billion Jobs created: 1,832 Population & Territory: 3.2 million across 74,000 miles of distribution and 10,722 miles of transmission lines covering 45,000 acres in the southern two-thirds of Alabama Highlights: “Continuing our commitment to site development, Alabama Power’s Economic & Community Development team supported the passage of the state’s Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy (SEEDS) Act,” writes Shane Kearney. Over 30 communities were awarded grants of $28.3 million in SEEDS for a total investment of $64 million toward site development, improvement and acquisition. The utility’s Strategic Analytics Team used GIS and drones to review and assess thousands of acres of land to identify potential sites and establish marketable sites. Alabama Power has engaged four of 12 startups from nine states, Latvia and Italy that were in the fourth cohort of the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator for pilot and commercialization opportunities post-program. Over 70 businesses benefi ted from the team’s new Make Ready program to provide fi nancial assistance for the infrastructure work required to install EV charging stations at their facilities. In 2023, Alabama Power leased fi ber that will enable rural broadband deployment in Brewton, Demopolis, Monroeville, and Selma. Partnering with Alabama Talent Solutions, the workforce arm of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Alabama Power’s workforce development team met with eight industrial customers, resulting in the creation of the Alabama Experience (ALEX) Mobile Career Trailer in 2023. Alabama Power Company Birmingham, Alabama Shane Kearney, D, E D Amazingalabama.com SOU TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $3.2 billion Jobs created: 4,706 Population & Territory: 3,361,419 across 39 counties in south Alabama and 10 counties in northwest Florida Highlights: Project wins included a 50-job, $3.7 million investment in Elba, Alabama, from Sunbelt Solomon Services; a $9 million, 21-job investment from Colclasher Enterprises in Selma, Alabama; a $393 million, 837-job investment in Opelika, Alabama, from Miele; and a $30 million, 250-job investment from Premier Aviation in Panama City, Florida. In addition to playing an integral role in local, state and regional economic development organizations across two states, PowerSouth’s economic development team continues to pursue the Strategic Sites Identifi cation Program it launched in 2018. Since that launch, the program has identifi ed 598 new sites and 185,862 acres for potential megasite, heavy industrial, light industrial, heavy agribusiness and general agribusiness uses. In 2023, the team’s business retention and expansion e orts include 15 northwest Florida visits, 29 Alabama visits and 22 existing industry expansions in both states. Last year, PowerSouth also celebrated the completion of new generation assets: the Lowman Energy Center and Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4, increasing its capacity to serve its 20 distribution members and new industry. In December 2023, the PowerSouth Board of Directors voted to increase Business Development Loan Program funding from $2.5 million to $5 million per project to cover increased construction costs. PowerSouth Montgomery, Alabama Taylor Williams, V P, E A www.powersouth.com/economic-development SOU TH CE NT RA L Corporate facility investment: $2,099,120,636 Jobs created: 2,796 Population & Territory: 1,059,750, including over 32,000 customers, across 19 counties and 36 communities along 1,700 miles of distribution lines and 575 miles of transmission lines in southeastern Alabama Highlights: “In 2023, Southeast Gas underwent a transformative realignment of its Economic and Community Development Department, leading to remarkable achievements across southeast Alabama,” writes Vince Perez. “Demonstrating a commitment to regional growth, Southeast Gas hosted an educational summit on industrial site development, uniting economic development partners from across the region. This summit, coupled with strategic support, empowered four Southeast Alabama communities to secure nearly one-third of the $30 million AL SEEDs Act Program funding, including the program’s largest single award of $5.7 million. Southeast Gas’s dedication to infrastructure and site enhancement was evident in its partnership with Farpoint Development, aimed at boosting the REAL Industrial Park’s competitiveness. The Economic and Community Development team further showcased its support for local growth by distributing $164,000 in Community Betterment Funds to local developers. Southeast Gas also worked with member cities to develop and implement a pioneering retail development and recruitment strategy, a fi rst for Southeast Alabama … The biggest challenges have been fi nding tracts of land with minimal landowners willing to sell and no fatal fl aws. That being said, our successes have not only led to more project activity in areas that are traditionally overlooked, but also provided motivation and confi dence for local leaders to pursue other community development initiatives they wouldn’t have normally attempted.” Southeast Gas Andalusia, Alabama Vince Perez, D E D www.southeastgas.com SOU TH CE NT RA LNext >