ELEANOR, W.Va. (WCHS) — A manufacturing facility in Putnam County is looking to add 100 more employees to meet the growing demands of the data center industry.

The nVent facility, located in the Eleanor Industrial Park, assembles modular structures to house power generation components for data centers.

During an announcement ceremony at the facility on Tuesday, Andrew Metz, the site controller for nVent, said the company already has 150 people working for them there, but wants to bring the workforce total to 250.

“The data center industry has exploded, and so with that our demand has gotten to the point where we need to hire 100 new employees just at this facility, just to meet the demand that we have already here," Metz said.

nVent is looking for welders, electricians and builders to help them create the modular facilities and put together the electrical components and wiring inside. They are then shipped across the country to help power data centers.

“These are very large, uninterrupted power supplies, so if the power goes down at a data center, these things will kick on," Metz said. "They run the battery for a while and then they will connect to generators, so they are the key component to make sure a data center’s power never goes down.”

The rise in AI technology has led to the data center boom across the nation. This is something the West Virginia legislature just got on board with this past session, passing a bill to incentivize them to build here.

Putnam County Senator Glenn Jeffries, R-Putnam, was one of the main proponents. He spoke at Tuesday’s announcement.

“That means that men and women of Eleanor are not just making equipment, but they are powering the future," Jeffries said.

The facility previously belonged to Parkline and then Trachte before nVent bought them last year, turning a business that used to be only modular construction at one point to now meet the needs of the digital world too.

“We’ve been doing this data center work for the past five years, so this data center world isn’t new to us," Metz said. "We’re one of the first ones in the modular world being in the data center world. These buildings that you see across here will go across the country."

nVent wants to start hiring immediately. There will be a hiring event on Thursday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at nVent, located at 328 Eleanor Industrial Park Drive in Eleanor. Metz said qualified candidates could be hired on the spot.