By Emma Renly
For Columbia Gorge News
THE GORGE — Data centers have become a hot topic locally — who’s behind the proposals, what policies guide development and how residents are or aren’t being informed.
While much of the focus has been on Klickitat County, public records show that another potential data center is being assessed in Wasco County, where Google built its first major facility more than two decades ago. But the developer, Savion Renewable Resources, hasn’t confirmed any exact plans.
“There is currently no defined data center project,” said Kelly Cooper, spokesperson for Savion, which is a subsidiary of Shell Energy. She added this means there is no defined location, water rights, or power source.
Records show that in June this year, however, Savion submitted a 970-megawatt Line Load Interconnection Request to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Wasco Electric Cooperative for a project titled “Yellow Rosebush.”
Cooper said the filing was an early-stage assessment of potential grid capabilities and should not be construed as a project proposal.
For most developments looking to access regional transmission infrastructure, a formal Line Load Interconnection Request must be submitted to BPA, which owns and operates roughly 75% of the Pacific Northwest’s high-voltage lines. It puts the application in an interconnection request queue, where BPA determines whether a System Impact Study is needed.
It’s one of the first steps in a long process that every undefined data center goes through to become defined. Among the last would be obtaining air and water quality permits from Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, and on Oct. 9, Gov. Tina Kotek told the agency to pause all permitting related to data centers until next July.
Wasco Electric Cooperative did not answer questions about Savion’s power request application.
Traci Brock, manager of business services, said the co-op “does not comment on the power requirements, service requests, or business activities of existing or prospective members.”
While a Freedom of Information Act request was submitted to BPA in early September, the anticipated return date is January 2027. The documents could show the transmission line or data center location, power source, projected power amount needed and future plans.
Savion is a name familiar in Southern Wasco County. The company is also proposing an industrial-scale solar facility and battery with a similar title — Yellow Rosebush Energy Center — which could produce up to 800 megawatts of power with 800 megawatts of storage capacity. It would be located across 8,075 acres of farmland.
Savion has not submitted a Generation Interconnection Request to Bonneville for that facility.
When asked if the energy generated from the solar facility would be used for the power request, Cooper said, “At this stage, it would be premature to speculate about how its energy could ultimately be used or about potential connections to other future development.”
Other utilities have been contacted to see if a purchase agreement has been signed for energy generation from Savion’s proposed solar facility. Representatives from Portland General Electric, Google’s data center in The Dalles and BPA confirmed they did not.
While energy transmission will go through Bonneville’s grid via transmission lines, that does not mean the energy will go to residents.
On the other side of the Columbia River, Savion submitted two power access requests to Klickitat Public Utility District (KPUD) this year — Energizer II, a 1,000-megawatt AI data center and Vines Rest DC, a 1,000-megawatt server farm.
Columbia Gorge News received the information through a public records request to KPUD.
In addition, Savion proposed another industrial-scale solar and battery facility named “River Turn Energy Center” in eastern Klickitat County. It could create up to 1,050 megawatts of energy and store 800 megawatts with an accompanying battery.
Klickitat County’s Planning Department is currently drafting an ordinance that would guide future data center development, and interim zoning rules for the short-term. Another solar and battery energy storage system ordinance is also under legal review.
For Wasco County’s already-established data centers, the City of The Dalles permitted Google’s campus, not the planning department. The city follows its own comprehensive plan and municipal code, which contains land use and development regulations.
“We do not currently permit data centers in any zones in the county,” said Kelly Howsley-Glover, Wasco County’s community development director. Any permits would be through local town or city policies. For unincorporated areas, Wasco County administers the Statewide Land Use Planning program.
However, she added that “industrial zones in unincorporated Wasco County are limited, with most committed to existing uses.”
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This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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