Data centers in Douglas County, Washington: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Douglas County's data centers cluster in East Wenatchee around Pangborn Memorial Airport and run on hydropower from the Douglas County Public Utility District's Wells Dam. Three companies operate there: Sabey Corporation, Actapio and Microsoft, which opened its first 241,000-square-foot building on Urban Industrial Way in November 2022 and broke ground on a second building that October. An April 2023 agreement raised Sabey's campus from 52 to 70 megawatts of power through December 2029.

Fast growth from data centers and cryptocurrency miners pushed the PUD to act. Its load rose from 60 megawatts in 2000 to about 140 by 2019, prompting General Manager Gary Ivory to call the pace "unsustainable." The PUD imposed a moratorium on new data center and crypto contracts, then in January 2020 approved rate increases: crypto miners would pay 10% more every six months for five years, and Sabey and Actapio 5% more on the same schedule. Sabey's John Ford called the increases "devastating for our business," and Actapio's CEO said the company might have to reevaluate a planned eightfold expansion.

Microsoft buys its power on the wholesale market rather than from Wells Dam, and paid $24.9 million toward a new substation and transmission work serving its campus. In April 2023 the PUD held a hearing on adding a demand charge for crypto miners and smaller data centers based on each company's peak annual use, after swings in their demand forced the PUD to buy about $1 million of power on the open market that year.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.