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It may seem like data centers are everywhere, both literally and figuratively.

News reports abound about the proliferation of large data centers, being driven by the rapid rise in artificial intelligence on top of ongoing growth in cloud computing and e-commerce. These reports invariably discuss the enormous electricity demand of these facilities and the costs of building the infrastructure needed to serve them.

Ohio is already home to more than 200 data centers, the fifth-most of any state, with more than half of them near Columbus. Recent research shows that, while nearly 90% of existing data centers are in urban areas, two-thirds of new data centers are planned for rural areas. So, this subject is clearly front-and-center for electric cooperatives and the mostly rural communities they serve.

Some of Ohio’s 24 electric distribution cooperatives have been approached about serving large-load data centers. The state’s co-ops are prepared to support local economic growth, including any data centers that locate within their territories, but are committed to ensuring that growth does not come at the expense of current members.

Buckeye Power Inc., the electricity generation and transmission cooperative owned by Ohio’s distribution cooperatives, has developed a dedicated process for energy-intensive data centers that will help ensure any additional costs of serving such high-load facilities are borne by those companies.

Because of the amount of electricity they require — sometimes as much as a small city — data centers can necessitate new infrastructure, from power generation plants and transmission lines to substations. The new process establishes data centers as a separate category of electric load and assigns infrastructure and power costs directly to them.

Through Buckeye Power, electric cooperative members in Ohio own the generation resources needed to reliably serve their homes and businesses. The new process developed for data centers will help preserve this existing generation for cooperative members while allocating costs for additional power generation and transmission directly to data centers.

“Ohio’s electric cooperatives stand ready to serve any data center that is built in co-op territory, but our members will not be asked to shoulder the costs associated with serving them,” said Craig Grooms, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives and Buckeye Power.

“We’ve shown that owning power generation helps insulate cooperative members from volatility, that is, the highs and lows of the energy market,” Grooms said. “The new process for data centers builds on that foundation so that as new, large users connect to the grid, co-op members receive protection from higher costs.”

About Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives

Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives is a not-for-profit statewide organization that — along with Buckeye Power, a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative — serves 24 member-owned electric cooperatives in Ohio, which distribute electricity to more than 400,000 homes and businesses in 77 of the state’s 88 counties.

Photo caption: A residential neighborhood bordered by a huge Google hyperscale data center New Albany, Ohio Photo credit: Getty Images.