New 200-MW Gas-Fired Plant in Ohio Will Power Meta Data Center

Ohio regulators have approved construction of a 200-MW natural gas-fired power plant in Licking County, a project designed to provide electricity for an affiliate of tech company Meta.

The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) on June 9 gave the go-ahead for the Socrates South Power Generation Project in New Albany, in the heart of the state’s growing data center industry. Will-Power OH, a subsidiary of The Willliams Companies, will build and operate the plant. The facility will supply energy exclusively to Sidecat, part of Meta Platforms. Sidecat owns a 740-acre industrial campus in the New Albany Business Park.

New Albany is home to a number of major data center developments, including facilities operated by Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft.

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Sidecat has developed several data centers located in the New Albany complex. The new power plant, with a 20-acre footprint, will be built adjacent to a Sidecat data center currently under construction at the site. The OPSB in a news release said the Socrates station “will operate ‘behind-the-meter’ to serve the electric load of an adjacent data center and will not be physically connected to the electric power grid.” The agency said the “Natural gas supply for the generation facility will come from two 24-inch diameter gas pipelines that will be the subject of future applications with the OPSB.”

Officials on Monday said the plant is expected to cost about $1.6 billion to build, and eventually will include two power stations, each with 200 MW of generation capacity. Williams also plans to build a substation at the site. Construction is expected to begin this summer, with an estimated completion date in the third quarter of next year.

Meta has had a presence at the New Albany Business Park since 2017 and began operating a data center campus there in 2020. The company announced an expansion at the site in April 2022.

EdgeConneX, another data center developer, earlier this year said it start construction of a 120-MW gas-fired power plant to provide energy for a planned data center at the New Albany complex. The company said that power station could begin operating as soon as early next year.

—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.