Ohio House Democrats Urge Governor DeWine to Act on Data Center Electricity Costs Before Ohio Consumers Face Higher Bills
COLUMBUS - State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) today shares a letter sent to Governor Mike DeWine urging immediate action to establish a statewide utility rate class for large data centers in order to protect Ohio families and businesses from looming electricity rate increases. The Democratic lawmakers' letter comes as PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator serving Ohio and much of the Midwest, prepares for a major procurement process this fall that could saddle residential and small business customers with significant costs associated with rapidly growing electricity demand from data centers if adequate consumer protections are not in place.
Ohio House Democrats are calling on Governor DeWine to work with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) 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.
The letter notes:
“The time for action is now. 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.”
Data centers have become one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand in Ohio and across the country. State policymakers, consumer advocates, environmental organizations, and utility regulators have increasingly raised concerns that without appropriate rate structures, the infrastructure and generation costs needed to serve these facilities could be spread among all utility customers. The data center industry has publicly acknowledged that they increased capacity requirements by 50%.
The request follows recent discussions in the Ohio General Assembly regarding data center development and consumer protections, including proposals to create a separate utility rate class for large-load customers. With no additional legislative session days currently scheduled before the fall, caucus members emphasized the urgency of executive action to prevent unnecessary costs from being passed on to Ohio households and businesses.
“The cost of living crisis has affected everyone. As leaders and legislators we need to prioritize ways to protect our constituents from energy rate increases from large faceless data centers. There was a great push with traditional legislation to help protect people from these price hikes but they would not pass and be in effect quickly enough to make a difference in the fall. This proactive step is our way of exploring different paths to get the results that we need to help the people we are at the Statehouse to serve,” said Rep. McNally.
In their letter, lawmakers urged the governor to act quickly so that Ohio has protections in place before PJM's upcoming processes determine how future grid investments and reliability costs will be allocated.