Ohio Data Centers Need to Pay More
It’s no secret that data centers require a lot of power to operate. But high demand could raise Ohio energy rates. That’s why the Ohio state house introduced a bill to make data centers pay their fair share. But will this bill affect your bills and could your rates increase as well? Let’s explore why Ohio data centers will need to cover 85% of their energy costs.
Data Centers Cause Ohio Energy Concerns
Some current data centers need around 600 megawatts of power to function. To put this in perspective, the average Ohio home uses 846 kilowatt-hours of power per month. This means the power needed for ONE data center could power the average home for nearly 60 years!
As you can guess, this incredibly high power demand led to concerns of price spikes across the board. It’s for this reason that AEP Ohio filed a new data center tariff with PUCO. The tariff would force tech companies to take on more risk by paying more money up front to cover their power line and energy costs. This keeps these out of residential bills. And, if a data center project fails to launch, the tariff charges an exit fee to the tech company. In other words, utilities can’t saddle their customers with those costs.
Ohio Data Center Tariff Bill Details
As you can guess, data center tech companies pushed back against the ruling. But it seems that the idea has taken root as two Ohio lawmakers introduced a house bill to bring the tariff to other parts of the state. The idea is to discourage ill-conceived projects and encourage careful investments from utilities. Both of these keep high costs out of your electricity bills.
House Bill 706 (HB706), if passed as is, does two major things. First, data center projects would have to enter contracts with utilities. The contracts outline expected power need, connection costs, and creates exit fees for canceled projects. Second, utilities cannot recover costs from failed data centers by passing on the costs to customers.
How Bill Affects Ohio Customers
As its stands, HB706’s restrictions make it more likely that Ohio will only see serious projects will seek interconnection contracts. So it’s possible that energy demand from data centers will have less impact than analysts feared. And that could be good news for your future electric bills.
That being said, it’s still a great idea to shop for cheap electricity rates right here at https://www.ohenergyratings.com. You can also count on us for the tips and news that could affect your bills.