DOE Partners with Softbank and AEP Ohio to Boost AI-Driven Data Center Capacity
The U.S. Department of Energy, whose leaders have been vocal in support of developing and powering artificial intelligence while speaking at CERAWeek this week, is getting behind a new public-private partnership to build out energy infrastructure for data center projects in southern Ohio.
The DOE and U.S. Department of Commerce are teaming up with Softbank and utility AEP Ohio to redevelop DOE land. Softbank-owned SB Energy is planning to build 10 GW of new power generation which will both connect to the main grid and energize data center computing in the region.
The collaboration and project, as planned, will not cost utility customers in rate increases. Japanese-owned Softbank will invest close to $33 billion in installing 9.2 GW of natural gas-fired power capacity to the development planned for Portsmouth, Ohio.
“Our Japanese partnership is a direct result of President Trump's America First trade policies,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the announcement. “Japan has committed to invest $550 billion across America. With this historic trade deal we are reindustrializing the country through critical projects like this $33 billion dollar power project in Portsmouth, Ohio. Yesterday we announced additional mega projects in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.”
DOE officials are attending the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston and have been touting the Trump Administration’s commitment to both AI and the electricity needed to power supercomputing.
AEP Ohio, part of American Electric Power, is the utility for the region. AEP, like many electric utilities, has been seeking load commitments and investment to help build out some of anticipated 125 GW of new capacity needed to power AI and cloud-based computing over the next decade.
SB Energy also is investing $4.2 billion with AEP Ohio to upgrade and build new transmission lines in southern Ohio. Participants in the collaboration say it honors the Trump Administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge and will cost AEP customers nothing extra.
SB Energy reportedly has committed to making excess transmission and generation capacity from that gas-fired generation available to the grid. The U.S. digital technology firms have signed onto the pledge.
“Our partnership with the Department of Energy strengthens America’s AI leadership, secures the energy and compute needed for the future, and powers the next era of innovation for the United States,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. “AI will transform every industry, and the PORTS Technology Campus will help deliver the next-generation infrastructure needed to unlock those breakthroughs.”
DOE announced last week plans to build the PORTS Technology Campus on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant, once known as the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County. Construction is scheduled to begin this year.
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EnergyTech Staff
Rod Walton is head of content for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.
Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
He can be reached at [email protected].
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.