Sometime later this spring, a Facebook user somewhere in the world will post a political rant or offer congratulations on a friend’s new baby, completely unaware of how a power substation located a few miles southeast of Powell Butte made such an act possible.

Friday morning, Sen. Ron Wyden met in Redmond with representatives of Facebook, local utilities and local governments to mark the completion of the Ponderosa substation.

By doubling the amount of electricity Central Oregon users can draw from the Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines running between Columbia River hydroelectric dams and California, the substation will enable the opening of Facebook’s second Crook County data center this spring, and the continued development of the region’s growing data-center industry.

Wyden said despite its proximity to transmission lines, upgrades to the electrical system had historically passed by Central Oregon. When Facebook first started exploring expanding its data center operations in Crook County in late 2011, the BPA could not deliver the needed power, and projected it would take until summer 2014 to improve its facilities.

After several complaints from local officials, Wyden contacted BPA and PacificCorp representatives and got everyone to agree to discussions of the need to move faster, according to Wyden communications director Tom Towslee.

Wyden said completing the upgrades represent Central Oregon rolling out a welcome mat for industry and economic development.

“It’s going to be a new day and Central Oregon is not going be an afterthought,” Wyden said Friday morning. “Central Oregon is going to have a seat at the table.”

Prior to the completion of the substation, Central Oregon could draw no more than 650 megawatts from the BPA system. Larry Bekkedahl, senior vice president of transmission services for BPA, said the region would often approach that limit when usage was at its peak during winter.

Data centers use massive amounts of power, Bekkedahl said, with the two phases of the Facebook data center projected to consume 120 megawatts; by contrast, a large hospital might draw just 2 or 3 megawatts, he said. Opening the data centers without improvements to the local power system would have been impossible, Bekkedahl said.

With the upgrades, Central Oregon can draw 1,300 megawatts from BPA, though it will be limited to 1,000 megawatts until further upgrades are made to the transmission lines.

Apple is currently constructing two data centers near the Facebook facilities, while a third, yet-unnamed company is looking at locating in the area. The four data centers completed or under construction will cover more than 1.3 million square feet, with most of that space given over to row upon row of computers.

Roger Lee, director of Economic Development for Central Oregon, said Central Oregon is considered one of the top locations in the country for data centers as of today, and data centers are considered one of the top growth industries over the next several years.

“Everyone I talk to in the industry says we don’t see this slowing down for 10, 15 years,” Lee said.

Lee said although the jobs provided by the opening of the first Facebook data center have been fewer than some had hoped — particularly in view of the buildings’ size and energy consumption — about 65 people are working for Facebook today in Crook County, with another 65 or so working for the data center but not on Facebook’s payroll. The other data centers in development should support similar levels of employment, he said.

Having companies like Facebook and Apple in Central Oregon captures the attention of the non-tech companies EDCO is trying to recruit, Lee said, even if they have no need for the cool nights and dry weather that keep data center computers running smoothly.

“It definitely validates that it’s a good place to do business and it’s a good place to invest,” he said.