Ohio’s booming data center corridor is taking center stage in Columbus, as lawmakers hear how one tech giant’s infrastructure buildout is tied to new jobs, grid capacity, and water restoration projects that aim to benefit communities across the state.
Google has invested more than $20 billion in its Ohio data center operations since 2019, company leaders told state lawmakers last week — and says that footprint is helping put “downward pressure” on electric rates for households and small businesses across the state.
Liz Schwab, market development and policy manager for Google Data Centers, made the case before the Ohio Joint Data Center Committee at a historic hearing that brought all four of the world’s largest hyperscalers — Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft — to the Statehouse, a lineup committee co-chair Rep. Adam Holmes called “perhaps unprecedented.”
Ohio has become one of the country’s fastest-growing data center markets, and the industry’s biggest players are showing up — answering nearly six hours of lawmakers’ questions and laying out what their growth delivers for Ohioans today and over the long term.
Schwab told lawmakers Google buys 100% of its Ohio power through competitive markets under PUCO-approved tariffs — and pledged the company will keep “paying our own way” as a responsible steward of shared infrastructure.
Her argument: a large, steady load lets utilities spread fixed costs across a wider base, helping hold down rates for Ohio families and small businesses rather than shifting costs onto them.
Google is backing that up with a first-of-its-kind initiative to aggregate 100 megawatts of distributed capacity annually into a virtual power plant on the PJM grid. This frees up new grid capacity while directly compensating participating customers, and positioning data centers as part of the reliability solution.
Google has committed to replenishing 120% of the water it consumes. In Ohio, that includes joining AWS, Bath & Body Works and Ryan Companies in a $1.2 million Nature Conservancy project to restore the Slim Creek wetlands in Licking County — filtering runoff from about 700 acres of farmland to protect Buckeye Lake’s water quality and local ecosystems.
As the Joint Data Center Committee continues its fact-finding work, Google and its peers are making the case that data centers are the backbone of Ohio’s digital economy. Their investments deliver high-wage jobs, long-term capital investment and grid innovation that state and local leaders can build on for decades.
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