The Ground Rules

Water · grid · bills

Water, the grid, and your electric bill

The business park holds 40 data centers on 15 company campuses.1 They share the Columbus water system and the regional power market with every household in central Ohio.

Last checked against sources on .

The short version

  • The whole business park used about 9 million gallons of water a day in late 2025. Its limit is 16 million.2
  • Google's New Albany data center alone withdrew 1 billion gallons in 2025.3
  • AEP has said connecting a new large data center could take three to five years, so companies are building gas plants in the park instead.17
  • Data center demand added $29.37 billion to grid capacity costs over four auctions, by the market monitor's estimate.25

Water

New Albany has no water plant of its own. It buys water and sewer service from the City of Columbus.1

  • ≈ 9 million
    gallons a day used by the whole business park in late 2025, out of 16 million a day allowed under a 2015 agreement with Columbus2
  • 1.0 billion
    gallons withdrawn by Google's New Albany data center in 2025, by Google's own count, up from 405 million in 20243,4
  • > Bexley
    Columbus water records show Google New Albany used more water last year than the whole city of Bexley (about 13,000 people)2
  • ≈ 3%
    of Columbus water department consumption goes to data centers, by its administrator's estimate2

What we don't know: how much water most buildings in the park use. Companies usually ask officials to black out those figures in their agreements, citing trade secrets.2 Google is the only company here that publishes a per-site figure.

More detail: what the city and companies report

Usage varies widely from company to company.

  • No company in the park pumps groundwater from wells, the city says.1
  • The city says New Albany "has not required any more water or sewer capacity from the City of Columbus over the past decade."1
  • Google's site withdrew 1,008 million gallons in 2025 and consumed 836 million of them. That water did not come back as wastewater.3
  • Meta's New Albany campus withdrew 86 megaliters in 2024, about 23 million gallons.5
More detail: the 2015 allowance, peak days, and Columbus's plans

The park's allowance is still the one set in 2015, "long before New Albany became a destination for the data-center industry."2

The city says some data centers "may require 3-4 million gallons per day," but only "to refresh their systems several times per year."1

Columbus had drought years back to back in 2024 and 2025. It is building a new 48-million-gallon-a-day treatment plant and studying a "purple pipe" system that would send treated wastewater to industrial users, including data center cooling.6

In July 2026 Columbus City Council took up rules that would require data centers to file water conservation plans and report the chemicals they discharge to the sewer.7 We have not found a report that they passed, or whether they would cover New Albany's data centers.

The grid

AEP Ohio can't build power lines as fast as data centers want power, so companies are building gas plants inside the business park.

  • 600 → 1,500 MW
    central Ohio data center load, April 2024 to July 2025, according to AEP Ohio, which projects more than 5,000 MW by 20308
  • 17,861 MW
    of data center load under signed contract with AEP Ohio statewide as of February 2026, phasing in through 20359
  • 8,000–10,500 MW
    AEP Ohio's peak demand from all its customers combined in recent years, for comparison9

How we got here

  1. March 2023AEP Ohio pauses new data center dealsIt stopped signing new data center service agreements in central Ohio while it studied about 30,000 MW of requests.10
  2. July 9, 2025The state approves a data center tariffThe PUCO approved it and ordered the pause lifted.10
  3. August 2025House Bill 15 takes effectIt created a path for large customers to build their own generation on their side of the meter, and shortened Power Siting Board deadlines.30
  4. 2025More than 2,000 MW of on-site powerAuthorized or applied for in Ohio in 2025 alone, the PUCO chair told lawmakers.16
  5. Late 2026A new line and substation near the parkA 138,000-volt line and a new Kiber substation off Green Chapel Road are scheduled to come into service.14

"…as much as one gigawatt of power is anticipated to be generated in this manner."

The City of New Albany, on on-site power in the business park1

AEP has said connecting a new large data center could take three to five years,17 and that it could take "7 to 10 years" for transmission to meet full demand.15 See every plant, its size and its status

More detail: the data center tariff, and what the PUCO chair said

The PUCO chair later told lawmakers it was "difficult for AEP Ohio to determine how much of that 30,000 MW was real and how much was speculative."16

The chair also told lawmakers that "since the enactment of HB 15, Ohio has seen a number of data centers choose to provide their own behind the meter electricity."16

The tariff, approved in case 24-508-EL-ATA,10 covers new data center loads of 25 MW or more. They must pay for at least 85% of the power they contract for, even if they use less, for up to 12 years. They must pay 36 months of those minimum charges if they leave early.11 The PUCO chair called it "the first data center specific tariff approved in the country."16 An appeal is pending at the Ohio Supreme Court (case 2025-1458).12

More detail: new power lines toward New Albany

AEP has announced two 13-mile, 345,000-volt lines from its Vassell substation near Sunbury to new substations off Green Chapel Road and near Tippet and Johnstown-Utica roads, on 150-foot towers. They pass through New Albany, Johnstown, and Berkshire, Harlem, Trenton, Jersey and Monroe townships.13

Your electric bill

The price of grid capacity, which households pay, jumped after 2024/25. PJM's independent market monitor says "data center load growth is the primary reason for recent and expected capacity market conditions."22

Most of the effect on household bills runs through PJM, the regional grid operator that serves Ohio and its neighbors. Each year it holds an auction to pay power plants to be available at peak times, and households pay that cost through the generation part of their bill.

The capacity price, by delivery year

Dollars per megawatt-day for most of the PJM region. Below each year: what data center demand added, by the market monitor's estimate.

  1. $28.92182024/25for comparison
  2. $269.92182025/26+$9.33 billion22
  3. $329.17192026/27+$7.27 billion23
  4. $333.44202027/28+$6.50 billion24
  5. $325.00212028/29+$6.27 billion25

Four auctions: $29.37 billion added by data center demand.25 The monitor re-runs each auction without existing and forecast data center load and compares the results. Totals are for all PJM customers, not Ohio alone.

See the numbers as a table
Delivery yearCapacity priceAdded by data center demandIncrease over the price without data centers
2024/25 for comparison$28.9218——
2025/26$269.9218$9.33 billion22174.3%
2026/27$329.1719$7.27 billion2382.1%
2027/28$333.4420$6.50 billion2465.5%
2028/29$325.0021$6.27 billion2561.8%
Four auctions$29.37 billion25
 Capacity prices are per megawatt-day for most of the PJM region. "Added by data center demand" is the PJM independent market monitor's estimate: it re-runs each auction without existing and forecast data center load and compares the results. Totals are for all PJM customers, not Ohio alone.

What it has meant for bills

  • AEP said a household on its standard price using 1,000 kWh a month would pay about $27 a month more starting in June 2025, because of the capacity auction.26
  • State data show the average Columbus residential bill rose $25.64 between April and July 2025.27
  • The Ohio Consumers' Counsel says many Ohioans saw supply prices rise 10% to 35% that June.28

"…there would have been no shortfall but for the forecast data center load."

PJM's independent market monitor, on the 2028/29 auction25
Your bill may differ. If you buy power through a community aggregation program or a competitive supplier, your generation price comes from that contract, not AEP's standard offer.28 No public source we trust gives a dollar figure per household for data centers alone, so we don't give one either.
More detail: what PJM said, delivery charges, and the tariff

PJM itself said demand from data centers "continues to far outstrip new supply."20

The delivery part of the bill is set separately. In April 2026 the PUCO allowed AEP Ohio about $11 million of the $97 million increase it had sought, and AEP said average bills would fall by more than $1 a month. The same order sets a minimum monthly charge for new data center customers.29

The data center tariff is meant to keep data centers paying for the grid upgrades built for them, so those costs don't land on households.10 It does not reach the regional capacity price, which every customer pays.

Bills in the Statehouse

One state law made on-site gas plants easier. Two more bills would set rules for data centers.

  • Law since August 14, 2025House Bill 15

    Created "self-power systems" that let large customers build generation on their own side of the meter, and shortened Power Siting Board deadlines.30

    What else it did

    It ended electric security plans and the OVEC coal-plant charge on bills, and requires utilities to file distribution rate cases regularly.30

  • Passed the House March 18, 2026; in the Senate Energy Committee as of late JuneHouse Bill 646

    As described, it would require data centers with 250 MW or more of peak demand to supply power that offsets their grid use. It would also create a separate rate class for them, require them to report water use, and cut their sales-tax break from 100% to 50%.31

  • Third House hearing June 3, 2026House Bill 706

    Would write data center contract protections into state law: agreements of at least 12 years, minimum bills, financial guarantees, and a ban on shifting data center costs to other customers.31

The legislature was in recess until November 2026, so the status of these bills may have changed. We will update this page as they move.

Sources

  1. City of New Albany, "Resident Questions," data center information site, undated, accessed Nov. 5, 2026. datacenters.newalbanyohio.org/resident-questions
  2. Michelle Jarboe, "How much water do data centers really use? Here's what we learned from public records," The Price of Data, News 5 Cleveland / Scripps News, 2026. news5cleveland.com
  3. Google, 2026 Environmental Report, "Water use by data center location 2025," p. 97. sustainability.google (PDF)
  4. Google, 2025 Environmental Report, "Water use by data center location 2024," p. 110. gstatic.com (PDF)
  5. Meta, 2025 Environmental Data Index, "Water Withdrawal by Facility." sustainability.atmeta.com
  6. Mandy Crispin and Alex Cossin, "Columbus explores water reuse to support data center growth and long-term water supply needs," WaterWorld, June 23, 2026. waterworld.com
  7. George Shillcock, "Columbus City Council considers data center regulations, including water usage requirements," WOSU, July 21, 2026. wysu.org
  8. Nora McKeown Cleveland, data center tariff coverage, Spectrum News 1 Columbus, Sept. 2025. spectrumlocalnews.com
  9. AEP Ohio, "AEP Ohio Updates PUCO on Data Center Load Under Contract," press release, Feb. 13, 2026 (release), and the PUCO filing (docket).
  10. Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, "PUCO orders AEP Ohio to create data center specific tariff," July 9, 2025 (release); Vorys, client alert on the order, July 11, 2025 (vorys.com).
  11. AEP Ohio, "Data Center Tariff," accessed Nov. 5, 2026. aepohio.com
  12. Ohio State University Agricultural & Resource Law Program, "Data center controversies continue in Ohio," April 6, 2026. farmoffice.osu.edu
  13. Renee Fox, "AEP Ohio gives notice for new high-voltage transmission lines to meet growing energy demands," WOSU, March 28, 2024. wosu.org
  14. AEP Ohio, "Kiber 138-kV Transmission Line Project" fact sheet, Dec. 19, 2025. aeptransmission.com (PDF)
  15. Renee Fox, "State utility officials approve AEP Ohio's building onsite energy generators at two data centers," WOSU, May 28, 2025. wosu.org
  16. PUCO Chair Jenifer French, comments before the Ohio House Select Committee on Data Centers, May 27, 2026. legislature.ohio.gov (PDF)
  17. Katie Millard, "New Albany gets small electric grid to power new data center," NBC4, 2026. nbc4i.com
  18. PJM, "PJM Capacity Auction Procures Sufficient Resources To Meet RTO Reliability Requirement," July 30, 2024. pjm.com (PDF)
  19. PJM, "PJM Auction Procures 134,311 MW of Generation Resources; Supply Responds to Price Signal," July 22, 2025. pjm.com (PDF)
  20. PJM, "PJM Auction Procures 134,479 MW of Generation Resources," Dec. 17, 2025. pjm.com (PDF)
  21. PJM, "PJM Capacity Auction Procures 138,318 MW of Generation Resources as Work Continues To Address Growing Electricity Demand," July 14, 2026. pjm.com (PDF)
  22. Monitoring Analytics (PJM independent market monitor), "Analysis of the 2025/2026 RPM Base Residual Auction, Part G (Revised)," June 3, 2025. monitoringanalytics.com (PDF)
  23. Monitoring Analytics, "Analysis of the 2026/2027 RPM Base Residual Auction, Part A," Oct. 1, 2025. monitoringanalytics.com (PDF)
  24. Monitoring Analytics, "Analysis of the 2027/2028 RPM Base Residual Auction, Part A," Jan. 5, 2026. monitoringanalytics.com (PDF)
  25. Monitoring Analytics, "Analysis of the 2028/2029 RPM Base Residual Auction, Part A," Oct. 30, 2026. monitoringanalytics.com (PDF)
  26. Kevin Accettulla, "AEP Ohio files for rate increase. Here's how much your bill could go up," NBC4, May 30, 2025. nbc4i.com
  27. Katie Millard, "How data centers contribute to spiking electric costs in central Ohio," NBC4, Aug. 6, 2025. via Yahoo News
  28. Ohio Consumers' Counsel, "Quick Facts: Data Centers in Ohio," accessed Nov. 5, 2026. occ.ohio.gov
  29. Allie Vugrincic, "State utilities commission approves AEP Ohio rate changes," WOSU, April 2, 2026. ideastream.org
  30. Ohio Legislative Service Commission, "H.B. 15 Final Analysis," July 9, 2025. legislature.ohio.gov
  31. Ellen Essman, "What's the state of data center legislation in Ohio?," OSU Farm Office, June 25, 2026. farmoffice.osu.edu