The center is planned for the Midwest Mega Commerce Center in Jefferson Township, near Jeffersonville in Fayette County — about an hour’s drive southeast of Dayton — with operations set to start in September 2026.
Electricity transmission facilities to serve the first phase of the data center will exceed $22 million in cost, the OCC filing says.
The office said its concern is that AES — the former Dayton Power & Light — will seek to have residential customers cover some of those costs.
The OCC says in its filing that AES Ohio says the agreement with Amazon is narrowly tailored and protects other consumers from having to share upgrade costs in the event the data center does not achieve commercial operations or take on a minimum level of service.
“While AES Ohio represents that the agreement is protective of other AES consumers, it notes that it intends to seek rolled-in rate treatment for the costs of the network upgrades in subsequent proceedings before the appropriate state and/or federal regulatory agencies,” the OCC filing states. “This is cause for concern for all customers who likely would be responsible for paying for those costs.”
The office added: “OCC reserves its right to challenge any rolled-in or other rate treatment unfairly impacting residential consumers in this or any subsequent proceedings before the appropriate state and/or federal regulatory agencies.”
OCC said it is asking the FERC to ensure that transmission costs resulting from the Amazon Data Services-AES Ohio arrangement be completely paid by the “cost causer,” in this case, Amazon.
“Data centers like Amazon’s are coming in droves to Ohio,” Maureen Willis, agency director of the OCC, said in a statement. “Their unique electricity needs can and should be addressed in arrangements that protect other consumers from bearing their costs. Their fair share should mean they pick up 100% of all costs, with no costs being paid by other consumers, period.”
According to the OCC, planned upgrades include an expansion of a 345 kV Fayette substation to add four bays and fourteen breakers, with four approximately quarter-mile 345 kV radial feeder lines delivering power from the substation to the Amazon center.
Messages seeking comment were sent to representatives of AES Ohio and Amazon.
In June 2023, Amazon announced an estimated investment of $7.8 billion by 2030 to expand data center operations in Ohio. Since 2015, Amazon Web Services has invested about $6.3 billion in Ohio, supporting some 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs annually, according to the company.
Data centers can be hungry for power, requiring plenty of electricity for servers and equipment to keep servers and networking equipment cool.
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