Ohio Regulators Force AEP To Wall Off Data Center Power Costs

✓What's documented Names the regulator (PUCO) and utility (AEP Ohio) and quotes PUCO Chair Jenifer French on record describing the order's intent.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio issued a new order requiring AEP Ohio's data center customers to give advance notice before ramping up electricity usage. AEP Ohio must then procure the extra power through separate stand-alone auctions or spot-market purchases, with the full cost assigned to the data center customer rather than spread across AEP Ohio's other default-rate customers.

• Data center customers must notify AEP Ohio before ramping up usage; AEP Ohio then buys the incremental power through separate auctions or spot-market purchases billed entirely to that customer.
• PUCO Chair Jenifer French said the action builds on the commission's earlier work creating separate rate classes for data center customers and ties into the Ratepayer Protection Pledge.
• A companion rate structure approved this spring already requires new AEP Ohio data centers to pay a minimum monthly customer charge tied to the costs they create on the grid.
• Ohio has 240 data centers across 19 markets, according to industry tracker Data Map cited in the report.