Planning for Tomorrow
Big Projects Bring Big Questions. Here’s How BPU Finds the Answers.
Whenever our community faces something new, questions naturally follow.
That’s a good thing.
Questions mean people care about what happens next.
Over the past several months, we’ve heard questions about data centers. Will they affect our electric system? Do we have enough water? Will my utility bill go up? Who decides whether a data center can even be built?
If you’ve asked yourself any of those questions, you’re not alone.
As your community-owned utility, we believe you deserve clear answers. Not rumors. Not assumptions. Just an honest look at how the process works and the role BPU plays in protecting the customers we already serve.
Understanding BPU’s Role
One of the biggest misconceptions we’ve heard is that BPU decides whether a data center comes to Wyandotte County.
We don’t.
Decisions about land use, zoning, development agreements, and economic incentives are made by the Unified Government through a public review process.
Our role begins when a developer asks BPU to provide electric and water service.
Whether the request comes from a data center, a manufacturing facility, a hospital, a school, or another large customer, our process is the same.
And that’s where being a community-owned utility matters.
The people making these decisions aren’t sitting in another state or another corporate office. They live here. They raise their families here. They pay utility bills, too.
The same things that matter to you matter to us.
Reliable service.
Affordable utility bills.
Protecting our water resources.
Making thoughtful decisions that will serve our community for years to come. When we evaluate a large project, we’re not planning for someone else’s community.
We’re planning for ours.
That means every project starts with one simple question: Can we serve tomorrow without compromising the promises we’ve already made to the customers we serve today?
What Happens Next?
Once a request for service is received, the work begins.
Our engineers, system planners, operations teams, financial experts, and utility leaders start asking questions.
Can our electric system continue providing reliable service?
Can our water system meet both today’s and tomorrow’s needs?
Will new infrastructure be required?
Can we continue delivering the level of service our customers expect?
These aren’t questions that can be answered in a single meeting.
They take careful analysis, engineering studies, long-term planning, and collaboration across the utility.
Most people never see that work.
But it’s some of the most important work we do because the decisions we make today affect our community for decades.
The Question We Hear Most
Of all the questions we’ve received, one comes up more than any other.
Will a data center increase my utility bill?
The answer is no.
Protecting our existing customers is built into the way we evaluate every large project.
Before service is provided, BPU carefully evaluates what infrastructure and system improvements may be needed to serve that customer. Those costs are reviewed as part of the project to protect existing residential customers and small businesses from paying for infrastructure needed to serve a new large customer.
That isn’t an afterthought.
It’s part of the process from the very beginning.
Why We’re Sharing This
Whether you support data centers or still have concerns, we believe you deserve to understand how decisions are made.
Our job isn’t to tell you what to think.
Our job is to ensure every project is evaluated carefully and responsibly, with the people we already serve at the center of every decision.
That’s the responsibility that comes with being your public utility.
We know you may still have questions.
We hope you do.
We’ve created a detailed FAQ that answers many of the questions we’ve been hearing from our community, including how projects are evaluated, how reliability is protected, and BPU’s role in the process.
Because trust doesn’t begin when the lights come on.
It begins long before that.
