Despite data center pressure, utility disconnections are down in Ohio

The AI-data center boom is putting strong upward pressure on utility prices in Ohio. Even so, disconnections are down, according to the state’s consumer representative.

That’s because other factors are at play, said J.P. Blackwood, spokesman for the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.

Data from the office show that electricity disconnections were down almost 12% for the year ending June 31 compared to a year earlier. The 272,817 disconnections were the least in four years.

That’s not to say power prices aren’t going up — they’re 26% higher now than they were at the beginning of the year, according to data from the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. And increasing demand from data centers is a major factor.

But there were upward pressures on prices — and downward pressures on family income — prior to the data center boom. 

One was the economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic that started in 2020 and the mass layoffs it prompted. Another was the cessation of many covid-related income subsidies in 2023.

Possibly illustrating that is a 44% drop in natural gas disconnections by mid-year compared to the 12 months ending three years earlier, according to consumers’ counsel data.

Also feeding earlier high energy prices were oil and gas supply disruptions sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022.

“There were huge spikes,” Blackwood said of electricity prices.

But power prices remain high — and are expected to go higher.

They’re 87% higher now than they were just before the pandemic started, according to public utilities commission data.

Blackwood said he expects that’s going to mean many Ohioans will need help paying their bills.

That’s especially true when you consider that utility costs are far from the only ones that have been rising.

“Inflation’s been pretty bad,” Blackwood said. “Even when you put energy costs aside, when your grocery costs and your rent costs and your gasoline costs and whatever other costs are going up, more people are going to struggle with their utility bills and more people are going to get disconnected.” 

Help is available, but few struggling customers appear to be aware. According to the National Energy and Utility Affordability Commission, just 20% of eligible families in Ohio took advantage of such help in 2023.

For more information on how to get help, go to the consumers’ counsel’s Consumer Utility Assistance page.

Blackwood said they’re the most essential services and people need them.

“Electricity and natural gas are a matter of life and death,” he said. “They’re essential. People have died in Ohio because they were cut off.”

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