Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have banded together to fight an Ohio utility that wants them to pay for upgrades to the electric grid that will be necessary to support the Big Tech firms’ plans to install energy-intensive data centers to power artificial intelligence technology.
American Electric Power Ohio, which serves cities such as Columbus as well as rural and suburban areas of the Buckeye State, told the state’s Public Utility Commission last month that it needs the tech companies to pay up in order to prevent the utility from passing on the rising costs to consumers.
But the Big Tech firms have balked, calling the planned tariff “unfair” and “discriminatory,” according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
In May, AEP Ohio, which…
