AUGUSTA — A proposed data center in Sanford would be part of a larger industrial campus that could be fully isolated from the broader electrical grid, project developers told lawmakers Thursday.

Dubbed the “Sanford Woods Industrial and Technical Campus,” the project would cover more than 1,000 acres along and near the Mousam River, said Randy Gibbs, the prime developer. Beyond a data center and on-site power generation, Gibbs said, it would include industrial agriculture and cold storage, with room for more.

“It’s wrong to think of us solely as a data center project, as we envision much, much more,” Gibbs told lawmakers during a work session of the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.

Sen. Matt Harrington, R-York, who first mentioned the project last week, described it primarily as a data center that was already “well along in the planning process.” But the developers offered a different picture.

Gibbs told lawmakers that the project was in its nascent stages. He said it would likely take months for his company to ink a deal with a data center developer hoping to use the site. Once a developer is nailed down, Gibbs said, his company hopes to begin providing them power within a year and a half of them acquiring the property.

“We have early-stage conversations with a number of data center projects,” Gibbs said in an interview after the session.

Gibbs’ development partner, Walt Bussells, said the campus would generate its own power and reiterated that it could be completely disconnected from Maine’s broader electrical grid. Critics have argued that connecting a large data center to the state’s grid could drive up electric bills for all Mainers.

“We’d connect to the grid if that would be desirable or beneficial in some way,” Bussells said. “But we intend to be, we would say, ‘islanded’ physically, operationally and financially.”

For example, the plant could sell its excess electricity to Central Maine Power Co. to prevent brownouts during periods of high demand, Bussells suggested.

The campus would generate power using fuel cells, Bussells said. Though they ultimately aim to use hydrogen, Bussells said the cells would run off natural gas for at least the first few years. When pressed, he declined to get into the technical details of power generation, calling himself “an accountant,” not an engineer.

LAWMAKERS AREN’T SURE

The developers repeatedly argued that since the project would be isolated from the electrical grid, it would have no impact on Mainers’ electric bills. But some lawmakers voiced skepticism.

Rep. Christopher Kessler, D-South Portland, noted that natural gas is the primary driver of electricity supply costs in Maine.

Bussells said the whole campus would produce 300 megawatts of power as a starting point. That could mean significant demand for natural gas.

Adding a large buyer to the pool could increase local and regional demand for natural gas, hiking gas prices and “inadvertently raising the cost of living for everybody else,” Kessler said.

At the same time, the campus’ water usage could drive down water rates for the rest of town, according to David Parent, superintendent of the Sanford Water District. He said the district has more than twice the capacity needed for the entire campus.

Parent said the majority of the district’s costs are fixed, so adding a big user could reduce customers’ rate per gallon — at least as long as the facilities operate.

Overall, the campus could bring an 80% increase in the town’s taxable valuation, said City Manager Steven Buck. And it would bring the residential and commercial property tax burden down 60%.

“For the average $400,000 home in Sanford, that is about $3,000 a year (in) savings,” Buck said. “That is enormous.”

Buck did not provide specific dollar figures for how much the campus could be worth.

Gibbs said his family has owned the land for decades and attempted to develop it at several other points. He now represents an entity called the Northern New England Energy Company, which is effectively a real estate holding company, Gibbs said.

In a statement Wednesday, Harrington mistakenly said he had spoken with the “Northern New England Energy Corporation” — not “Company.” The corporation is based in Vermont. Its parent company on Thursday denied involvement in the Sanford project.

LOCAL CONFUSION

Though a handful of local officials spoke about the project at Thursday’s hearing, others have said they were not made aware of the proposal until last week.

Jamie Cole, Sanford’s director of planning and development, said he has not received any direct communication from a potential developer about the project. On a Thursday morning phone call, Cole said he only knew what had thus far been shared in media reports.

“I know what you know,” he told a reporter.

At a Sanford City Council meeting Tuesday, Councilor Jonathan Martell said he has “been fielding a number of questions” about the data center since reports about it first emerged. He said some councilors and members of the city staff appear to have known about the proposal since mid January, but that information was not shared with the entire council. He did not specify who he believed had been informed.

He called for an investigation into the project and the “lack of communication” surrounding it.

Mayor Becky Brink said that two councilors heard about the project the same day Harrington announced it. She did not specify who those councilors were.

“It wasn’t like we didn’t get the information to you — we didn’t know,” she told Martell at Tuesday’s meeting. “I just knew that there was a possibility of this. So we did not have information, at all.”

Neither Martell nor Brink returned messages seeking comment this week.

When the news broke last week, other local officials referred questions to the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council. Executive Director Keith McBride has repeatedly said he cannot answer any questions about the proposal.

In similar proposals throughout the country — as well as in Wiscasset — local officials have signed nondisclosure agreements, which prohibit them from sharing information about data center developments. It’s not clear whether anyone in Sanford has signed an NDA about this project.

Ayn Hanselmann, who sits on both the City Council and the growth council’s board of directors, refused to discuss the proposal following Tuesday’s meeting.

Asked whether anyone on the growth council had signed an NDA, Hanselmann told a reporter “I have no information to share with you,” before walking away.