Data centers could raise the monthly electricity bill up to $70, with Ohioans still divided on the issue

A new report indicates that data centers being built in Ohio could result in residents paying up to $70 per month, urging the Buckeye State’s lawmakers to protect Ohioans from that potential outcome.

Innovation Ohio said in its report that Ohio residents will be paying $70 per month by 2028 unless politicians step up to prevent it. While the report is from a Democratic advocacy group, it seems to underscore a point with bipartisan appeal — that action is needed to address the impacts of data centers.

“Some of the richest companies in the world are using Ohio’s electric grid like an unlimited power outlet while taxpayers pick up the tab,” Innovation Ohio President Michael McGovern said, according to Cleveland.com. “We are literally paying companies to plug massive electricity demands into our grid, then asking families to cover the cost.”

According to the news source, Ohio has become one of the most popular states for data centers, with the Columbus region now ranked fourth in the world for operational capacity and second in the nation for hyperscale facilities operated by Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta.

Cleveland.com reported that since 2017, state and local governments in Ohio offered approximately $2.5 billion in tax incentives to attract data centers to the state, with most of that support coming from local property tax abatements, which allow companies to avoid paying some property taxes for several years.

Despite the potential rise in the electricity bill, some people in the state still want the Big Tech companies to build more data centers.

The Perkins Local School District, just south of Sundusky, for example, allowed Aligned Data Centers to build more of its data centers in their area after the company paid $52 million in 2023, part of which the district will spend on children’s education, according to News 5 Cleveland.

School District Superintendent Lonny Rivera told the news source that the data centers are “gonna give us some additional dollars to help us take care of some of the things to provide a better education for our kids.”

On the other hand, many Ohioans oppose companies building their data centers next to where they live.

News 5 Cleveland reported that Norton City Council enacted a six-month moratorium on consolidating any new data center projects last December. Ohioans living in Wilmington, Hilliard, Dublin, and Sunbury also opposed Big Tech companies building their data centers in their regions.

NBC 4 reported that on Wednesday, the Columbus City Council heard from stakeholders and experts about the positive and negative impacts of data centers.

“There are about 200 data centers located in the state of Ohio,” Columbus Councilmember Christopher Wyche said, per NBC 4. “Over 130 of them are in the Columbus region and so that impacts us as we make decisions about the future of our water, power, sewer infrastructure.”

Among the negative impacts mentioned during the meeting were those on land, pollution, noise, the state losing money as a result of tax breaks for centers and a spike in utility bills. Among the positive impacts mentioned were job creation and additional money for city infrastructure and schools when data centers give back.

“What we don’t want to do is sleepwalk ourselves into a reality or a future where folks are less healthy, where water infrastructure has been impacted in a negative way, where our electric payers are paying more,” Council President Shannon Hardin said, per NBC 4. “We have to balance the necessity and the positive impacts of data centers with the real long-term lasting impacts that these may have on existing Columbus residents.”

In January, state Reps. Gary Click, R-Vickery, and Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk, introduced a measure to establish the Ohio Data Center Study Commission. The bipartisan panel would analyze the multifaceted effects of data center development, including economic benefits, environmental consequences, infrastructure strain and land use issues.

The House Technology and Innovation Committee has advanced the measure, House Bill 646.