American Electric Power's President and CEO Bill Fehrman expects the total amount of power the company will generate nationwide by 2030 will nearly double what AEP already uses, and that will largely be driven by more data centers in Ohio and Texas.
Fehrman made the remarks during AEP's earnings call for the first quarter of 2026 on Tuesday. The announcement comes as data centers and rising utility bills spark grassroots backlash in Ohio and around the country.
According to Fehrman, AEP will generate 63 gigawatts nationally by 2030, or enough to power tens of millions of homes. The company currently generates only 32 gigawatts of power across 11 states.
Fehrman added that 90% of that new power will come from data centers with much of the remaining 10% coming mostly from other industrial growth.
Fehrman said the company's growing footprint will require both new infrastructure and new generation. That could lead to more rising costs for its customers.
"Of the 63 gigawatts, 53 gigawatts are in Texas and Ohio, requiring large-scale transmission projects, which we believe we excel at constructing and operating. The remaining 10 gigawatts requires new generation, for which AEP has secured the necessary long lead time equipment," Fehrman said.
Fehrman stressed that as this growth occurs, AEP wants to work with large customers to pay the cost and provide relief to residential customers.
"Even as we invest to meet rapidly growing load expectations, affordability is top of mind. And we remain focused on taking decisive actions to facilitate keeping residential rate impacts manageable," Fehrman said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in February, this year's average electric industry revenue in Ohio increased by 22% compared to a year ago. Last year, AEP made headlines when it announced record revenue as customers' utility bills continued to rise.
The Ohio Capital Journal reported this comes as Fehrman became the highest paid electric utility CEO in the country, making $37 million in 2025. That included a $23 million raise.
During the earnings call, Fehrman gave the newly-announced Piketon project in southern Ohio as an example of one of the massive projects contributing to the company's five-year, $78 billion capital plan.
President Donald Trump announced in April the construction of what his administration calls the "world's largest" data center in the world at 10 gigawatts. To put the sheer size of the project in perspective, Meta is building a five gigawatt data center in Louisiana it claims will be the size of Manhattan.
This large data center will be powered entirely by new natural gas plants, according to the Trump administration. The entire project is being backed by a Japanese firm, SB Energy.
In response to data center growth, AEP has had to request utility bill increases largely due to the cost of adding new transmission infrastructure to handle the load of the power needed throughout the state.
AEP Ohio's footprint includes much of central and southern Ohio, while other utilities like Duke Energy and FirstEnergy cover much of the rest of the state.
Ohio just approved a temporary rate decrease, which could raise rates for customers in the future. AEP initially fought for a rate increase, but growing grassroots backlash in Columbus pushed back on that proposal.
Columbus Stand Up co-founder Morgan Harper, a former U.S. Senate candidate, helped organize the community outcry in late 2025 and this year to AEP's proposal. Her group is now partnering with groups in Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia to call on AEP to switch to more green energy sources and for those state's governors to stop approving rate hikes.
In Ohio, those rate hikes go through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Those members are appointed by the governor.
Harper told WOSU trusting Fehrman's statements on affordability is irrelevant if state regulators or Gov. Mike DeWine don't hold companies like AEP accountable. She said the focus by these companies on data centers should be seen as AEP wanting to make more money by spending and investing more.
"That data center story can also be a cover for just maybe over investing or not investing in the ways that we as their customers would want to see, like, more in green and clean energy, for example," Harper said.
Harper also said diversifying energy sources with more clean energy can provide more stability to the grid and have lower prices ultimately for consumers.
Harper added that DeWine is unlikely to make any big changes with only months left in office, but that Democratic candidate Amy Acton is more supportive of holding electric utilities accountable than Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Harper criticized Fehrman for his high salary and AEP for passing costs to consumers.
"(Costs are) high enough that people on the ground here in Columbus are feeling the pinch of higher utility costs. And especially with threats around the corner from things like the Iran war, these prices are likely only gonna continue to rise," Harper said.
Harper didn't say if she'd support bans or moratoriums on new data centers, but that she understands why many people are frustrated and question the projects. She said she thinks people aren't looking for a world without data centers entirely, because people use technology everyday and these structures help house the data that is used.
"The desire to ban data centers and then also wanting to put a stop to rate increases and reacting to things like Bill Furman's very high pay...is this sense from the public that we no longer have control over our lives. And there are a lot of people making a ton of money off of it on our backs," Harper said.
