06/12/2026
Late last week, our President Roger Ford, who is a native of Pike County, submitted an executive concept proposal to the City of Pikeville regarding the proposed data center development at the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park.
This proposal is not opposition to the data center. Pikeville should welcome serious investment, new jobs, and responsible economic development. But a project of this size is not just another building at the industrial park. It is a major energy and infrastructure decision, and it needs to be considered with the long-term interests of the community in mind.
This is also not simply about a possible project for Eureka Energy Corporation and its partners. It is about offering ideas, experience, and assistance to help make this opportunity successful if the City chooses to move forward. Success should mean more than a ribbon-cutting. It should mean a project that benefits Pikeville and Pike County, protects residents and small businesses, strengthens the industrial park, and does not leave the community exposed to rising power costs or future infrastructure burdens.
The basic question is simple: if Pikeville is going to host a large new power user, shouldn’t Pikeville also have a serious dedicated power strategy?
That means asking some practical questions before final decisions are made.
Where will the power come from? Who pays for the infrastructure needed to serve the project? How are existing residents and small businesses protected? Can local and regional resources be part of the solution? Can this become more than one development and instead become the anchor for a broader energy and economic platform?
The concept we submitted recommended that Pikeville evaluate an Advanced Energy Park tied to the data center and the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park. That could include dedicated power generation, private onsite distribution, battery storage, microgrid controls, GPV biogas production, and the ability to consider future technologies as they become commercially and legally viable.
The primary power platform could be built around the concept of resource integration from coal, natural gas, and biogas generation, with emissions capture, carbon capture, and heat recovery evaluated as part of the design. Longer term, future technologies such as Small Modular Reactor generation could also be studied as part of a phased energy strategy.
The point is not to lock the City into one fuel, one technology, or one final project structure today. The point is to study what can actually work — technically, financially, legally, and economically — while keeping more value here at home, more jobs and economic benefit.
Any final agreement involving a large-load energy user should include strong public protections. Residents and small businesses should not be asked to subsidize the infrastructure required for a private project. There should be developer-funded power capacity, stranded cost protection, water-use and cooling disclosure, local hiring and procurement goals, and public transparency before material agreements are finalized.
Pikeville has a real opportunity here. But the opportunity is not just to host a data center. The larger opportunity is to use this moment to think seriously about energy, infrastructure, industrial recruitment, local jobs, and long-term economic control.
Additional information and the concept materials are available here: https://eureka-energy.com/advanced-energy-park
The data center can be the catalyst. Local energy control should be the strategy.
Responsible Growth. Dedicated Power. Local Control.