On June 26, 2026, the Ohio Power Siting Board said in a news release that it had approved the construction of a 250 megawatt natural gas fired electric generation facility in Licking County. The plant will operate behind-the-meter, a phrase the release sets in quotation marks, "to serve the electric load of an adjacent data center and will not be physically connected to the electric power grid."
Parts of the release follow, not the whole. The companies it names are not named here.
A Plant Beside a Data Center
The company that will build and run the plant will do so, the release says, at the southwest corner of two roads in New Albany, Ohio. It "will construct and operate the power plant." An affiliate of another company, both named in the release, "will consume the power generated by the facility."
One plant. No wire to the grid.
The release does not give the size of the data center's load. Nor does it say what work the data center runs.
Batteries for Fluctuations
The project, the release says, "will incorporate 116 MW of battery energy storage to accommodate fluctuations in demand and mitigate unplanned outages." Fluctuations in demand. Unplanned outages. Those are the two jobs the release gives the batteries, and it says no more about either.
The Conditions
The company building the plant "must adhere to 36 conditions designed to minimize potential impacts during construction and operation," the release says. The conditions themselves are not in the release. Neither is any measure of the fluctuations the batteries are to accommodate.
More information and maps, the release says, are available online "by searching case 26-0169-EL-BLN."
Sources
- Ohio Power Siting Board. OPSB authorizes construction of Licking County power plant. 26 June 2026. regulator