1-GWh energy storage project to be sited on Ohio data center campus

A large battery storage project is being built near Columbus, Ohio, next to a data center and industrial site in New Albany. Developer Eolian is putting up a 200-megawatt battery system that can store 1 gigawatt-hour of electricity, enough to run at full output for five hours. It's the first grid-scale battery of this kind approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board, the state agency that reviews large power projects.

This isn't a home upgrade program, but it points to a bigger shift happening on the power grid. Battery systems like this one store electricity when demand is low and release it when demand spikes, easing strain on the grid without building new power plants or transmission lines. Eolian's CEO said the goal is to make better use of the grid capacity that already exists, especially as data centers and other big users push electricity demand higher.

The project is expected to be running before the 2027-2028 capacity year for PJM, the regional grid operator that manages electricity supply across Ohio and much of the mid-Atlantic and Midwest. For homeowners, projects like this matter indirectly: more grid-scale storage can help stabilize electricity prices and reduce the risk of shortages during peak demand, which affects your utility bill and the reliability of your power supply, even though the battery itself sits on an industrial site rather than your property.