PJM Interconnection filed a study agreement with FERC on Tuesday 13 October for SoftBank's "Flagship" campus in southern Ohio, an AI data center complex of roughly 10 GW that is to bring its own gas-fired power plants. The agreement covers 9.6 GW of additional load and 10.2 GW of new gas generation that SB Energy, a SoftBank company, plans to build in phases through 2032, Utility Dive reports. The first 800 MW phase is outside the study; AEP Ohio will serve it under its data center tariff.
Ohio Asked, And Ohio Carries The Bill First
PJM is using its state agreement approach, a framework under which a state can ask the grid operator to study projects it needs for its own policy goals, with that state's consumers paying for what gets built. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio sent the request to PJM chief executive David Mills on 15 June. According to that letter, the transmission costs go to Ohio, and Ohio passes them on to SB Energy, which has committed to pay. PJM wants the agreement to take effect retroactively from 25 September, the day it was signed, and describes it as an interim step until it has a formal process for studies of this kind.
The filing is careful about its limits. The study is meant to give Ohio a technical basis for deciding whether to go ahead; it does not pick transmission projects, set cost allocation or grant transmission or interconnection rights. AEP Ohio already plans three 765 kV lines and related works for the campus, and PJM will check whether they are enough. SB Energy says it will pay for the generation and transmission built for the data centers, with payment obligations that apply however much electricity the campus actually uses, and will offer surplus generation and transmission capacity to the grid. How the costs are finally recovered is left to later PUCO and FERC proceedings.
9.2 GW In March, 10.2 GW Now
The White House announced the project in February as part of the $550 billion trade and investment deal with Japan. The Department of Energy's fact sheet of 20 March lists 10 GW of new generation, at least 9.2 GW of it natural gas, $33.3 billion of Japanese funding tied to the gas plants, a new interstate gas pipeline, and $4.2 billion for 765 kV lines and four substations that SB Energy pays for with AEP Ohio. The PJM filing now says 10.2 GW of gas, and neither document explains the gap. Most of the complex is to stand on federal land at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, a uranium enrichment site DOE is leasing to an SB Energy affiliate; some of the generation would be built about 30 miles away.
The DOE paper also commits the campus to cut its consumption or supply backup power to the local grid in emergencies and major weather events. It says long-lead items such as high-voltage electrical equipment are already secured. No turbine or engine supplier has been named.
Built In Phases, Run Like A Utility
Gas generation on this scale, owned by the customer and released to the grid when there is surplus, sits somewhere between a private power plant and a utility fleet. The phases have to follow the data halls as they are handed over, so the first blocks of generation will run while the next ones are still being erected around them. The questions people on such a site ask early are rarely about the headline figure: how much spare capacity covers a unit that trips, what the plant can still deliver on a hot and humid Ohio afternoon, and who decides when the campus backs off to help the grid. A promise of emergency support also means the data center backup plant may be called on for hours rather than minutes.
On the same Tuesday AEP announced its order for up to 1.6 GW of linear generators. Ohio's large loads are now arriving with their power plants attached; FERC's response to the PJM filing is the next step to watch.
Sources: Utility Dive, Microgrid Media, U.S. Department of Energy
