MLGW President speaks on Elon Musk’s supercomputer project and whether it will affect the city’s power and water supply
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Action News 5 learned new information about the Elon Musk supercomputer coming to Memphis. After the MLGW Board of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday, June 19, MLGW President & CEO Doug McGowen explained how the utility plans to supply water and electricity to the project without compromising service to MLGW customers.
McGowen confirmed he met with Elon Musk and his team about 90 days ago. The utility is working at breakneck speed to build out the infrastructure near the old Electrolux factory where the supercomputer will be located. And McGowen said what MLGW crews can’t get done fast enough, Musk’s team is handling.
“So, on the electric side,” said McGowen, “it’s really about infrastructure, and we found a way to get that done.”
McGowen said the xAI supercomputer facility being developed in the Pigeon Industrial Park will require more than 100MW of power, making it one of the utility’s top five consumers of energy.
”We have a substation down there that can be built out to provide about half the power they need,” he said, “And then we informed the company they would have to build their own substation to get the rest of the need. They would build to MLGW specifications then turn the operation of that substation over to MLGW.” McGowen said Musk’s company will get a discounted rate on electricity for 24 months to offset the cost of building the substation.
Now to the water demands of Musk’s technology. McGowen said the xAI supercomputer will use 1.3 million gallons of water a day to cool the equipment in the building. Environmental groups worry about the impact the supercomputer’s water needs will have on the aquifer, the layers of earth that contain Memphis’ pristine drinking water.
“We did tell them at the time,” said McGowen, “that it’s important for our city and our customers that we don’t use the best drinking water in the world for cooling purposes,” McGowen said the plan is to build the city’s first greywater system, which takes wastewater and re-treats it for industrial use.
“We were already doing this in partnership with TVA in hopes that they would use this,” McGowen told Action News 5, “but now xAI has come along, they’re in the very same location, it will be used for a number of customers: the City of Memphis, TVA and any other companies that want to come and locate there.”
The greywater system has not been built yet, and no timeline for construction was provided.
McGowen also said Musk’s company will be asked to cut back on power usage should MLGW experience a power outage or rolling blackouts. He said Musk and the TVA are working out the details of an agreement for the demand response program, determining how much and for how long will the supercomputer facility power down so the rest of MLGW’s customers don’t suffer as a result.
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