Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft oppose Ohio utility’s request to pay for power grid upgrades to support AI deployment

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are teaming up to fight an Ohio company that wants them to pay for power grid upgrades that will be needed to support the Big Tech firms’ plans to install powered data centers intensive to power artificial intelligence technology. .

American Electric Power Ohio, which serves cities such as Columbus as well as rural and suburban areas of the Buckeye State, told the state’s Public Utilities Commission last month that it would have to pay the technology companies to prevent the utility from switching. . rising costs for consumers.

But Big Tech firms have pushed back, calling the planned fee “unfair” and “discriminatory,” according to documents obtained by the Washington Post.

In May, AEP Ohio, which often charges customers a monthly fee that represents a percentage of the maximum amount of electricity they expect to use, asked technology companies to commit to a 10-year rate structure that would forced them to pay 90% of the estimated load.

According to the report, the companies, which initially agreed to pay 60% of the projected amount, would be on the hook for the larger payment even if they don’t end up using that amount of energy.

The hearing on this matter is set for October 30.

A spokesperson for AEP Ohio told The Washington Post that the company “hopes a resolution can be reached that will keep economic development moving forward in our service territory.”

The post has solicited comment from Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta.

Artificial intelligence has advanced rapidly, as evidenced by the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as well as competing bots from other tech giants.

But the technology requires copious amounts of electricity sourced from fossil fuels to power the servers and chips that handle AI-intensive tasks and store voluminous amounts of data.

Data centers also require a large number of fans that must run continuously to cool the servers so that they do not overheat.

Energy production is changing tech firms’ stated climate goals.

In central Ohio, where dozens of data centers currently operate, the power load used by these facilities increased from 100 megawatts in 2020 to 600 megawatts this year, according to AEP Ohio.

The company predicts that by 2030, the amount will reach 5,000 megawatts given the pending requests of dozens of data centers for obtaining permits.

There are about 3,000 data centers in the US – most of them run by obscure companies that lease to tech giants.

But AI evangelists like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates say alternative energy sources are needed to power the new technology.

Gates and Altman are investing in startups that seek to advance fusion, the process of combining light atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures and pressures in order to release massive amounts of energy.

Until now, all nuclear power has come from nuclear fission reactors in which atoms are split apart – a process that produces energy and radioactive waste.

Fusion does not produce radioactive waste from nuclear fission.

By postal wire