At the recent Site Selectors Forum, put on by the Illinois Economic Development Association, Ken Springer, President of the Knox County Area Partnership, informs the bulk of the meeting discussed the concerns with the demand of power across the United States:
“Right now, we are dealing with massive power capacity issues in the United States, both from challenges related to adding new generation to the grid and then in general too, the trend is that projects are demanding more and more power, and it is getting tougher and tougher for communities to find sites and buildings that have sufficient power for these projects. What we heard from the consultants last week, is that entire areas of the United States are being ruled out due to power capacity issues and that is something that is of great concern. What makes it worse is if you are in a community and want to upgrade your power supply or say you have a site or building that you are looking to add more power in order to be competitive, the current length of time it takes to get power upgraded to a site is four to five years.”
In a positive trend, Springer heard from the national consultants that Illinois is rapidly moving up in the rankings for economic development growth.
