Sales halt stopped businesses from coming to Grant County, company tells Grant PUD

EPHRATA - The company owning the Titan Building near Moses Lake wants to lure new businesses there to complete a multi-tenant data center.

But Grant County PUD stopped its dark fiber wholesale program in May while it sets new rates.

The halt resulted in a couple of businesses passing on Grant County because they need dark fiber, said WSS Corporation President Lee Willis, a business management and operations company for the Red Sea Group.

The Los Angeles-headquarted Red Sea Group bought the Titan Building about six months ago, Willis said.

Dark fiber is unlit fiber without the equipment installed and lit fiber includes equipment. The utility approved new rates for its lit fiber program last week.

"The clients we're talking to have some concerns we're seeing now," Willis told PUD commissioners during a recent meeting.

He said the dark fiber

moratorium may be misguided.

"We understand the PUD's desire in enhancing revenues by marketing lit fiber versus dark fiber," Willis said. "On the surface, your concept is sound."

But, "100 percent of nothing is still nothing. If you've got a lit fiber program and nobody's buying it, what did you gain?" he asked.

He added he wasn't advocating the PUD charge a certain amount for fiber.

The planned data center in the Titan Building will likely have more staff working there than a server farm, he said.

Data centers typically use more high-capacity fiber and less electrical energy than a server farm, he said.

Major users of lit fiber require a carrier class provider, a technical support team and full legal responsibilities for the entire circuit, he said.

If the PUD won't take the legal responsibility when a circuit goes down, the companies interested in coming to the Titan Building will go elsewhere, he added.

"They are absolutely insistent the circuit has to be 100 percent reliable," he said.

Willis said the company he works for builds spaces for data centers and doesn't make money off connectivity.

The Red Sea Group is a large group that's very motivated and willing to answer questions, he said.

Grant County Commissioner Tom Flint said the utility's been challenged to bring the system up to industrial standards. He suggested the PUD's Assistant General Manager Chuck Berrie speak with Willis to prevent any roadblocks.

Berrie said the issues have been discussed with the commission and said he was concerned the affected people weren't talking more.

"I think what we're talking about is very compatible," Berrie said.