Ohio: data centers & your electric bill
The numbers residents cite at hearings — grid, water, and regulator contacts for Ohio, from the free GridWatch toolkit.
Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for Ohio.
As of July 2026 · changes over months · Source: U.S. Data Center Power Map by State — ElectricChoice.com compilation (updated July 2026; CC-BY 4.0). Underlying load research: LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report; rates: EIA
Facility counts vary by directory because each one draws the boundary differently — DataCenterMap lists 44 in Alabama where this table says 35, since it counts small network rooms alongside hyperscale campuses. Cite the TWh figure rather than the facility count when you can; it is the number that speaks to grid impact. Underlying load research is LBNL-2001637 (Dec 2024).
Your regulator
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio — website · file a complaint
Official state energy data: EIA Ohio electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Pushback already happening in Ohio
| Where | Level | Status | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-08-04 | 1-year permit pause inside city limits; the mayor or service-safety director may extend it a second year. Does not reach the site that prompted it — that parcel is in Athens Township, outside the city | Source read 2026-08-04 |
| Vienna Township (Trumbull Co.) | Local | Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-16 | Extended 60 days, Aug 16 to Oct 16, 2026, while the county planning commission reviews the township's draft data center zoning | Source read 2026-08-04 |
| Boardman | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-28 | 1-year moratorium to study regulation and zoning changes | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Ohio (ballot measure) | State | Rejected | Conserve Ohio's proposed constitutional amendment to ban data centers over 25 MW gathered only ~70,000 of the required 413,488 signatures by the Jul 1 deadline. Organizers plan to try again for the 2027 ballot | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Massillon | Local | Expiredterm ran to 2026-08-14 | 180-day moratorium (expired Aug 14). Replaced by permanent zoning rules voted 7-1 on Aug 3: data centers restricted to I-2 industrial zones, 400 ft minimum from residential, utility capacity certification and noise limits required | Source read 2026-08-15 |
| Lordstown | Local | Enacted | 180-day moratorium (converted from outright ban after lawsuit). Developer Bristolville 25 LLC sued over \$3.6B, 1.65M sq ft project on former GM Lordstown Assembly site near OpenAI Stargate | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Ravenna | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-20 | 1-year moratorium, unanimous. Nearly 100 residents packed the special meeting. Resident's 4-minute speech against a proposed data center near UH Portage Medical Center went viral (250K+ views on X) | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Boardman Township | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-28 | 1-year moratorium, unanimous. Pause for zoning regulation development | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Painesville Township | Local | Enacted | 12-month moratorium on new data center permits, unanimous | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Vienna Township | Local | Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-16 | Rolling moratorium — originally enacted 2025, extended 60 days through Oct 16 while zoning solutions including noise and power limits are developed. Bitdeer (Singapore-based) has plans in area | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Weathersfield Township | Local | Enacted | 6-month moratorium. Bitdeer plans a data center on Belmont Ave on land where an Ohio Edison power plant once operated | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Twinsburg | Local | Enacted | 12-month moratorium on data center permits | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| South Bloomfield | Local | Enacted | Preventive ban — eliminated all industrial zoning preemptively to block data center applications. No developer had approached | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Ohio (tax exemptions) | State | Enacted | Governor's moratorium on data center tax exemptions while Joint Data Center Committee holds hearings. Two last data centers received \$42M in exemptions before the pause took effect | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Ohio (ballot measure) | State | Rejected | Proposed constitutional amendment to ban data centers >25 MW failed to qualify — collected ~70,000 of 413,488 required signatures. Backers plan to try again for 2027 ballot | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Plain City | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-08-11 | 1-year data center development ban | Unverified |
| Mount Vernon | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-02-13 | 6-month data center moratorium | Unverified |
As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Known data center campuses in Ohio
| Operator | Location | Tenant | Filing LLC |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Albany (Central Ohio) | Land-acquisition shells: Jet Stream LLC, Sharka LLC | ||
| Meta | New Albany | Meta | Codename shells: Greater Kudu, Raven Northbrook, Stadion, Wobniar, Pinnacle Mountain |
| Meta | Bowling Green | Meta | Codename shells: Greater Kudu, Raven Northbrook, Stadion, Wobniar, Pinnacle Mountain |
| Microsoft | Central Ohio (Heath) | Microsoft | Project-name / generic 'Holdings LLC'; less consistently codenamed |
| Amazon (AWS) | Central Ohio (New Albany) | Amazon (AWS) | Vadata, Inc. — AWS's build/operating entity on many permits |
| OpenAI · Oracle (Stargate) | Lordstown | OpenAI | Per-site developer LLCs (Crusoe/Lancium at Abilene, etc.) |
⏳ No verification date recorded · changes over months · Source: Operator ownership & filing-LLC naming patterns — compiled from operator releases and county filings, then checked against SEC EDGAR full-text search. Composite, not a single citation: look the entity up yourself before naming it in a filing
Each row carries its own attribution level — first-party rows come from the operator's own site, but colocation and REIT ownership was compiled from trade press and never passed an independent fact-check. Check the attribution column before citing a row.
Every data center already built in Ohio
The campuses above are the ones GridWatch tracks by operator and filing LLC. For the full inventory — street addresses of every existing facility, including the smaller colocation and network sites — DataCenterMap keeps a public directory for Ohio.
Two caveats before you cite it at a hearing: it lists facilities that already exist, so a newly proposed campus will not appear; and it counts a small network room the same as a hyperscale campus, so the facility count is not a measure of power draw or community impact.
Latest Ohio data center news
Video coverage mentioning Ohio
State municipal league: Ohio Municipal League
A data center was proposed near you?
The free toolkit walks you through it in five steps: who's really behind the LLC, what it costs your community, what to do this week, and a downloadable action pack — speech, letters, flyer, and CBA targets included.