The Ground Rules

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The PowerConneX 3 air permit figures don't agree with each other

Published .

Ohio EPA's Aug. 6 draft air permit for PowerConneX 3 prints facility totals on page 3. They are far higher than the yearly limits it sets for the same 30 gas engines on page 27.1 The siting board's staff reported in October that Ohio EPA's review was on hold over calculation errors.2

PowerConneX New Albany 3 is a proposed 450 MW plant of 30 gas engines for an EdgeConneX data center campus.2 It is waiting for a Power Siting Board decision, and the developer, the City of New Albany and the board's staff have signed a settlement recommending approval.3

What the documents say

Page 3 of the draft permit lists yearly facility totals. They are 130 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 142 tons of fine particles (PM2.5) and 174 tons of carbon monoxide (CO). Page 27 sets rolling 12-month limits for the 30 gas engines of 14.0 tons of NOx and 16.4 tons of PM2.5.1 The application has three different sets of totals.4 These figures cover different equipment and assumptions, and none of them has been reconciled in public.

Document and tableCoversNOxPM2.5CO
Application, Table 3-1 (July 24, 2026)4All emission units161.3178.1218.8
Application, Table 3-34Non-redundant equipment104.091.6210.9
Application, Table 3-44With operating restrictions130.26142.19172.52
Draft permit, p. 3 (Aug. 6, 2026)1Facility total, as printed130142174
Draft permit, p. 31Gas engines P001–P030 row117142173
Draft permit, p. 271Gas engines P001–P030, rolling 12-month limit14.016.4173.3
Tons per year. Both draft-permit sets include startups and shutdowns. Page 3 assumes 24 of the 30 engines run and 6 are in reserve.

The arithmetic on page 3

Page 3's printed totals don't match the sum of its own rows. The rows add up to 132.53 tons of NOx and 175.22 tons of CO. Its formaldehyde total (18.9 tons) is lower than its gas-engine row alone (19.0).1

The draft's PM2.5 and VOC figures are about 24/30 of the application's Table 3-1 figures.1,4 That may reflect the assumption that 6 engines stay in reserve, but we haven't confirmed it.

What Ohio EPA has said

"…on hold awaiting revised modeling due to annual emission rate calculation errors."

Siting board staff, on Ohio EPA's review of the air permit, Oct. 16, 20262

We hadn't seen corrected figures or an explanation from Ohio EPA as of Nov. 6, 2026. If either is published, we'll add it to this entry with the date. The Downwind map uses the page 3 totals for now and marks them as provisional.

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Sources

  1. Ohio EPA, draft permit-to-install P0140005, EdgeConneX New Albany North (PowerConneX New Albany 3), Aug. 6, 2026, pp. 3 and 27. Comment page: ohioepa.commentinput.com; the draft is on Ohio EPA eDocs.
  2. OPSB Staff, "Staff Report of Investigation," case 26-0361-EL-BGN, Oct. 16, 2026, including pp. 26–27 on the Ohio EPA permit. PUCO docket
  3. Joint Stipulation and Recommendation, OPSB case 26-0361-EL-BGN, filed Nov. 2, 2026. PUCO docket
  4. Trinity Consultants for EdgeConneX, "Exhibit E: Permit to Install Application," Tables 3-1, 3-3 and 3-4, OPSB case 26-0361-EL-BGN, filed July 24, 2026. PUCO docket
  5. OPSB case 26-0361-EL-BGN, case record, viewed Nov. 5, 2026. PUCO docket