President Donald Trump gathered leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which states these companies: — Agree to build, bring or buy new generation rescources — Cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades — Negotiate separate rate structures with utility providers and state governments — Commit to pay these rates for power whether they use the electricity or not — Coordinate with grid operators to make backup generators available — Hire and train talent from within the communities where data centers are built
The pledge was first announced in Trump's Feb. 24 State of the Union address.
U.S. Sen. and former Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted joined Trump and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at the roundtable discussion Wednesday, saying, "In places like Ohio, this work matters."
A Dayton Daily News and Journal-News investigation into data centers showed Ohio has the sixth largest number of data centers in the country, at 194, according to the Data Center Map. Virginia has the most with 568, followed by Texas, California, Illinois and Georgia.
"If America wants economic and national security dominance, we must lead in technology and AI to stay ahead of adversaries like China," Husted said. "But, this innovation requires energy and Ohio families are concerned about the impact on their own bills."
"Requiring companies to fund their own power protects working people from higher bills."
The cost of data centers
Massive data centers are proposed to be built across southwest Ohio. Our investigation looks at the cost and consequences of these power-hungry, water-thirsty, tax-supported facilities.
Many of southwest Ohio's existing data centers are relatively small. Data Center Map lists three in Dayton owned by Lumen — formerly CenturyLink — including some inside office towers.
But the growth of the tech and artificial intelligence industries is creating the need for sprawling centers the size of business parks with power and water needs rivaling entire municipalities. Projects are proposed in Springfield, Hamilton, Wilmington, Trenton, Piqua and Sydney.
Rising electric costs are one of the biggest concerns from local residents about these incoming data centers.
A recent study by Charles River Associates, a global consulting firm, showed data centers are partly to blame for rising electric costs across the region.
The study released in February found that most areas in the United States have experienced stable electricity rates, and data centers have generally not caused retail rate increases.
The one exception was parts of the PJM region where capacity price increases were driven partly by data center demand, according to the study.
PJM is a massive regional transmission organization that manages the electric grid and wholesale electricity market across Ohio and several other states.
PJM's benchmark capacity price increased by 833% between the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 delivery years. Even after regulatory intervention that lowered price caps, PJM's prices increased by an additional 22% for the 2026-2027 delivery year, which will affect future rates, according to the study.
A key factor in this increase was the surge in data center demand expected in the PJM region, which increased PJM's projected capacity needs.
© 2026 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
