Your Co-op Members Don’t Need You to Defend the Data Center. They Need to Know You’ll Defend Them.

As public opposition to data centers grows, electric cooperatives face a communications challenge that isn’t really about convincing members whether data centers are good or bad. It’s about proving whose interests come first.

A data center is coming to your service territory. Members have heard the national debate. They’ve seen stories about electric rates, water use, transmission lines, reliability and communities pushing back. Now they’re wondering what a massive new electric load could mean for them.

Will my rates go up?

Will this affect reliability?

Who pays for the infrastructure?

What happens if the data center leaves?

Why can’t our cooperative just say no?

The temptation is to start answering. I would start somewhere else. Because underneath those questions is one that matters more: Are you protecting us? That’s the question your communications strategy needs to answer.

Don’t defend the data center. Defend the member.

Some concerns about data centers are legitimate. Some are based on incomplete information. Some may not apply to the project in your community at all. Separate fact from fiction, certainly. But don’t make the mistake of treating member concern as opposition that needs to be defeated.

Your cooperative should be very careful about spending decades of member trust defending a project it doesn’t own.

The developer can explain the project. Economic development officials can talk about jobs and tax revenue. Local government can address zoning and land use. Other entities can answer questions within their areas of responsibility. Your cooperative has a different job: protect the member.

That means explaining what this enormous new load could mean for the electric system, what risks exist, what potential benefits exist, what the cooperative controls—and most importantly, what you’re doing to protect the people who already own the cooperative. That’s neither pro-data center nor anti-data center.

It’s pro-member.

Even the difficult “Why can’t you just say no?” question should come back to that principle. Depending on applicable laws, tariffs and other requirements, a cooperative may have an obligation to serve a qualifying customer within its territory. But don’t stop at “We have to serve them.” Separate the obligation to serve from the obligation to protect.

Who pays for necessary infrastructure?

How will existing members be protected from financial risk?

What contractual commitments are required?

What happens if projected load doesn’t materialize?

How will reliability be protected?

Those aren’t simply talking points. They’re the evidence members need to see. Don’t tell members you put them first. Prove it.

There is a principle I carried with me from my years leading a legacy newsroom brand that I believe applies especially well here. I call it proof of performance.

In news, we could tell viewers we were committed to covering breaking news, severe weather and the stories that mattered to their families. But telling them wasn’t nearly as powerful as showing them what we’d actually done. The proof was in the performance. The same applies to member trust.

Don’t simply say: “Members come first.” Show them.

Show them the investments you’ve made to improve reliability. Show them what you’ve done to control costs and keep rates from rising more than necessary. Show them how you’ve advocated for members when important decisions were being made. Then connect that history to what you’re doing now.

If you’ve created a rate structure designed to protect existing members from subsidizing the costs of a massive new load, explain it. If the large-load customer will be responsible for infrastructure costs, show how. If you’ve required long-term financial commitments or protections against stranded costs, explain them. If reliability studies and infrastructure improvements must happen before the load can be served, walk members through that process.

Each proof of performance is a brick. A reliability investment is a brick. A decision protecting members from unnecessary costs is a brick. A difficult question answered directly is a brick. A promise followed by evidence that it was kept is another brick. One brick doesn’t build trust. But repeated proof that what your cooperative says matches what it does begins to build something extraordinarily valuable.

Trust capital.

And when controversy arrives, you aren’t asking members to trust you based only on what you’re promising today. You’re standing on what you’ve already proven. Trust is built brick by brick, with proof of performance. Tell members the whole story—but sequence matters. Being pro-member doesn’t mean talking only about the risks. There may be legitimate benefits associated with adding a major new load. A data center can bring substantial additional electric revenue. Under the right circumstances, that load may allow fixed system costs to be spread across significantly more energy sales, potentially reducing upward pressure on rates. New infrastructure may provide broader system benefits. There may also be economic-development benefits for the community. Members deserve to understand that.

But when you tell them matters. Imagine a member is worried they’re going to pay for infrastructure needed by a multi-billion-dollar technology company. If your first response is, “This could ultimately help lower rates,” what might they hear? You’re selling me the data center. Instead: Listen first. Understand what members are actually worried about.

Acknowledge the risks. Don’t minimize legitimate concerns about cost, reliability or infrastructure.

Explain the protections. Show what the cooperative is doing to protect existing members. Prove it. Give members the evidence behind those assurances.

Then discuss the potential benefits.

At that point, you’ve earned greater credibility to say: There are potential benefits here, too, and you deserve to understand them. But don’t turn potential into promises. Explain what could benefit members, what conditions must exist for that to happen, what could change the outcome, and how the cooperative is protecting members either way. That’s balanced communication. And it sends an important message: We’re not here to convince you that this data center is good or bad. We’re here to give you the facts and protect your interests.

The measure of success isn’t whether members support the data center.

This may be the most important mindset shift of all. Your communications objective shouldn’t be: How do we get members to support this project? It should be: What do members need to see from us to trust that we’re protecting them?

That changes everything. It changes the questions you ask. It changes the information you provide. It changes when you communicate potential benefits. It changes how you prepare your CEO and board. And it changes how you measure success. Because a member doesn’t have to support a data center to trust their cooperative.

The outcome you’re looking for is a member who can say: “I may still have concerns about this project, but I trust my cooperative to protect us.” That’s the win.

And getting there requires more than an FAQ, talking points or a town hall. It requires understanding member concerns before messaging begins.

Separating fact from fiction.

Identifying where trust is vulnerable.

Documenting your proof of performance.

Determining what new proof members will need.

Sequencing the conversation correctly.

Preparing leaders for difficult questions.

And continuing to listen and demonstrate that members remain at the center of the cooperative’s decisions.

That’s a member trust strategy. And it’s the work I help cooperative leaders do at Whitney Advisory Group.

Because when a data center or another consequential large load is coming to your system, the question isn’t simply: What should we tell our members? The better question is: What do our members need to see from us to believe we’re putting them first? If your leadership team isn’t certain of the answer, that’s where our work should begin.

Don’t defend the data center. Protect the member. Prove your performance. And build trust—one brick at a time.

Caryn Whitney is Founder and Principal Advisor of Whitney Advisory Group. A former newsroom executive and electric cooperative communications leader, she advises energy and critical-infrastructure leaders on stakeholder trust, executive communications and high-stakes issues where public confidence can become a business risk.