The Kestrel high-performance computing system at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory accelerates energy efficiency and research at a pace and scale more than five times faster than NREL's previous supercomputer, Eagle. Finding ways to efficiently cool down data center facilities is important in a carbon-free future. Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL
Building the new infrastructure needed to supply all that electricity will require massive investments by AES Ohio, and it is concerned that if it makes those investments, it could get stuck with the bill if the tech companies leave the state or new technologies reduce the amount of power those data centers need in the future. In that case, the costs would be passed along to its other ratepayers, which would place an unfair burden on them.
Meeting that demand will require AEP Ohio to build new transmission lines, an expensive and time consuming process. According to AEP Vice President Kamran Ali, building that infrastructure is a “big undertaking and a major construction project” that could take between 7 and 10 years to complete.
Well, that is some lovely happy talk, but what it means is that AES Ohio and the state of Ohio are way behind many other utility companies and US states — especially Texas — when it comes to making the transition to electricity from zero emissions sources. And the data center owners — Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta — seem to be not all that interested in where the electricity to power their facilities comes from, just so long as it is available.
There is another consideration here. From the point of view of what is best for Ohio, AEP Ohio said in its filing with the PUC that since 2019, non-data center businesses have created approximately 25 jobs in the state for every megawatt of power requested, while data centers have created less than one job per megawatt. Microsoft argues thagt AES Ohio should treat all of its customers “equally” and “not discriminate based on factors that are irrelevant.