(The Center Square) – Ohio House Democrats on Tuesday called on Gov. Mike DeWine to take “immediate action” to establish a separate statewide utility rate for large data centers so that residential customers don’t get stuck with the bill.
The legislators cited an upcoming auction where companies will attempt to buy additional power generation capacity as a “backstop” safeguard to prevent blackouts when demand is high.
According to legislators, one of those companies is expected to buy extra capacity power is PJM Interconnection, a regional grid operator serving Ohio and much of the Midwest, according to the letter by the legislators.
“The time for action is now,” the legislator’s letter to DeWine said. “As PJM holds an early auction to secure additional power generation for data centers, it is critical that Ohio is ready to protect other customers from these additional costs. PJM has made clear that all Ohioans will have to pay even higher rates for the additional power generation unless a separate rate class makes sure it is paid by data centers. This responsibility falls on elected leaders of this state.”
PJM has no authority to allocate costs directly to consumers, a company spokesman told The Center Square.
According to a letter sent last month by Paula Conboy, chair of the PJM Board of Governors to stakeholders, PJM requested that the governors immediately start work on their commitment to allocate costs to data centers.”
If no framework for allocation of the costs of new data center loads is established by the company or by states “it is unclear to which customers those
costs would be assigned,” the letter said. “Absent appropriate safeguards, it is possible that these costs will be allocated to other consumers in the states, including residential consumers. We reiterate our ask here as PJM does not have the authority to allocate costs directly to retail customers.”
House Democrats are urging the governor to work with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission to “ensure a dedicated rate structure is established for large data center customers so that the costs they impose on Ohio’s electric grid are borne by those facilities rather than shifted onto everyday ratepayers.”
A spokesman for DeWine did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Ohio could be home to the world’s largest data center.
In late March, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a public- private partnership with SB Energy, a Japanese company and part of the SoftBank Group, to build the “world’s largest artificial intelligence data center” at the 3,700- acre Portsmouth site near the village of Piketon.
In February, the Trump administration announced a massive natural gas electric power plant planned for southern Ohio as one component of a new trade deal with Japan.