Energy

Photos from the 2026 Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference are now available, capturing both the Aug. 26 welcome reception and the Aug. 27 conference, with candid moments from speakers, members and conversations throughout the two-day event.

“The conversations we started at the Energy Conference are continuing well beyond the event itself,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services at the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Manufacturers are asking tough questions about what is driving their energy costs and who is being asked to carry the risk. We intend to keep pushing for answers.”

View the full photo gallery and look back at highlights from both days. 9/10/2026

The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association has spent months challenging the assumptions behind massive electricity demand forecasts and the billions of dollars in customer costs that can follow. Now that scrutiny is getting national attention, PJM is attacking the messenger.

In a new Canary Media report on questionable data center forecasts and Ohio power bills, PJM Executive Vice President Asim Haque called OMA’s position “naive and irresponsible.”

“If PJM is confident in these forecasts, then show the work,” said Lindsey Short, OMA managing director of advocacy and energy services. “Show us which projects are actually committed, when they are expected to come online and what happens to customers if those projections miss. Billions of dollars are on the line. Customers should not be forced to finance PJM’s assumptions.”

Haque’s choice of words is especially rich in Ohio. As former PUCO chair, he was involved in approving a FirstEnergy charge that ultimately cost customers roughly $456 million before the Ohio Supreme Court struck it down. In subsequently disclosed texts, Haque wrote that he knew the charge would “likely be found illegal” and that FirstEnergy would keep the money because it could not be refunded. Haque later said he was joking.

Forecast assumptions are already influencing capacity requirements, transmission spending and customer bills before much of the projected demand has materialized.

Calling OMA naive does not answer the questions. PJM still has to show its work. 9/9/2026

Ohio manufacturers gathered in Beachwood on Wednesday for a wide-ranging discussion on rising electricity costs, grid reliability and the decisions reshaping the energy market.

Ryan Augsburger, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, joined Chris Phalen, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and Andrew Barth, principal at Environ Energy, for the roundtable, which focused on the forces driving costs higher and what manufacturers should be watching next.

“Manufacturers are trying to make long-term decisions while the costs, forecasts and rules around energy keep moving underneath them,” Augsburger said. “We need much more discipline around what gets built, why it gets built and who is expected to pay for it. Those questions have real consequences for companies deciding whether their next investment happens in Ohio.”

The discussion gave manufacturers a chance to press beyond the headlines and dig into what changing energy markets, policy decisions and infrastructure investments could mean for their plants, their budgets and their next round of investment. 9/9/2026

Ohio manufacturers had the opportunity Thursday afternoon to take their energy concerns directly to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) President Ryan Augsburger joined OMA energy counsel Kim Bojko, John Seryak, OMA energy engineer, and manufacturers from around the state for a discussion focused on PJM, rising electricity costs and the need for greater scrutiny of the demand forecasts driving major energy investments and customer costs.

“PJM and utilities are making enormous decisions based on forecasts that may or may not become real,” said Lindsey Short, OMA managing director of advocacy and energy services. “That is not good enough when manufacturers are the ones being asked to absorb the cost. We need much tougher scrutiny up front and much stronger proof that the demand is actually there.”

The discussion took place ahead of the Energy Affordability Summit and gave manufacturers a direct opportunity to share what they are seeing on the ground with federal leaders shaping the energy debate.

“Meetings like this are exactly why OMA exists,” Augsburger said. “Our members should have a direct voice with the people making decisions that affect their costs, investments and ability to grow. Bringing manufacturers into the room helps turn policy debates into a conversation about what is actually happening across Ohio.” 9/3/2026

If you missed two of the biggest conversations at the 2026 Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference, now is your chance to catch up.

Dr. Jonathan Koomey opened the day by taking a hard look at the data center demand forecasts now driving some of the biggest decisions in the electricity market. His challenge was uncomfortable and increasingly important. How much of the projected load is actually real, and how much should customers be expected to pay before anyone can prove it?

Abhijeet Sathe of SB Energy closed the conference from the other end of the spectrum, laying out the scale and ambition behind the planned PORTS Technology Campus in southern Ohio and what it takes to pair enormous new demand with real generation, infrastructure and investment.

“Jonathan challenged us to scrutinize what is being forecast, while Abhijeet showed us what it looks like when somebody is prepared to put real investment behind real demand,” said Lindsey Short, Ohio Manufacturers’ Association managing director of advocacy and energy services. “That distinction matters enormously when billions of dollars in future energy costs are on the line.”

One talk questioned the assumptions. The other showed what committed growth can look like.

Both are worth watching. 9/4/2026

Apparently, asking who checked the math has some legs.

Coverage coming out of last week’s Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference landed on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch on Monday and the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday, putting manufacturers’ concerns about data center electricity forecasts and rising customer costs in front of readers across Ohio.

The Dayton Daily News did not exactly bury the point. Its front-page headline read, “OMA fears data center energy needs not understood.”

“We wanted people asking harder questions about these forecasts, and now they are,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “When the potential price tag is measured in billions, ‘trust the forecast’ is not good enough. Customers deserve to know what is real before they are asked to pay for it.”

Two front pages later, it looks like plenty of people are asking the same question. 9/1/2026

The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) debuted a new video at this week’s Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference highlighting the work of the OMA Energy Group (OMAEG) and the companies and experts behind it.

The OMAEG is a buy-up opportunity for OMA members, created specifically to give manufacturers a direct voice in Ohio’s utility regulatory process before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

As OMAEG expert John Seryak puts it in the video, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

That seat at the table comes with serious expertise. The OMAEG is supported by experienced utility regulatory counsel and a respected energy engineering firm, giving participating companies added leverage as decisions affecting electricity costs and reliability are made.

Watch the new video to hear from OMAEG participants and experts about why manufacturers cannot afford to sit out the decisions shaping their energy future. Interested in joining the OMAEG? Email Lindsey Short to learn more. 8/27/2026

The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) is done watching speculative data-center forecasts turn into real bills.

At the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference, Dr. Jonathan Koomey examined the assumptions behind projections of explosive electricity demand from data centers and AI, explaining why short-term trends, uncertain adoption and efficiency gains can make straight-line forecasts dangerously unreliable.

“Enough. Utilities keep putting enormous forecasts on the table, regulators keep treating them like facts and customers keep getting stuck with the risk,” said OMA President Ryan Augsburger. “If utilities and grid operators want to spend billions chasing projected demand, then prove the demand first.”

Koomey also warned that prospective data-center load can be counted more than once and cited estimates that interconnection queues may overstate the demand that ultimately materializes by three to five times.

Augsburger said that is exactly why regulators need to start acting like the check they are supposed to be.

“If regulators are going to approve billions in spending, they damn well better know the demand is real.” 8/27/2026

SB Energy co-CEO Abhijeet Sathe closed the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference with a project measured on a scale rarely seen in Ohio … or anywhere.

Sathe called the PORTS Technology Campus near Piketon the world’s largest construction project and said its total cost is expected to exceed what it took to build the International Space Station. Plans include major generation and transmission investment, 35,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent jobs once the project is complete.

“We’re going to generate an electron for an electron, and we’ll pay for all the transmission on the project ourselves,” Sathe said.

PORTS is not simply a story about how much investment could come to southern Ohio. It is also a test of whether major projects can bring the infrastructure they need, create lasting economic opportunity and avoid sticking existing customers with the bill. 8/27/2026

U.S. Reps. Troy Balderson and Bob Latta brought the federal energy debate to the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference, discussing permitting, generation, reliability and the policies shaping how quickly new projects can move.

Balderson urged manufacturers to keep Washington connected to what they are seeing on the ground. “We need the information that you have,” he told attendees. “You’re there on a daily basis.”

Latta was equally direct about who should pay when major new loads connect to the grid.

“We want to make sure that the ratepayers aren’t paying for a data center that comes into the area,” Latta said. “If you’ve got costs that are being incurred, that data center should be the one doing it, not the customer.”

That same scrutiny has to apply to the regulators and grid operators whose decisions ultimately show up on customer bills.

“Congress is asking the right questions, but regulators and grid operators need to start demanding better answers,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Before billions of dollars land on customers’ bills, somebody needs to prove the forecasts are real, the investment is necessary and the costs are going to the right place.” 8/27/2026

Today it is data centers. Tomorrow it could be any business someone decides is unpopular.

NBC4 reports that new legislation would require local voter approval before communities could approve data center projects, while also barring local officials from signing nondisclosure agreements with developers.

Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) President Ryan Augsburger pushed back on the proposal, warning that creating a special approval process for one industry is a dangerous precedent.

“We’ve seen laws happening at the local level and at the state level that impact data center businesses specifically,” Augsburger told NBC4. “My association contends that that’s discrimination against a business activity.”

OMA has also been clear that data centers should pay the full costs they create, including necessary grid upgrades, up front rather than shifting those costs and risks onto existing customers. But holding large new loads accountable for their costs is very different from creating a separate political approval process for one type of business.

Augsburger also warned that a patchwork of local approval rules would undermine the predictability businesses need when deciding where to invest.

Data centers are generating plenty of legitimate policy questions in Ohio. The answer should be clear rules, full accountability and no cost-shifting, not a new political test for whether a business gets to operate. 8/21/2026

PJM customers are paying historic prices for a capacity market that still is not delivering meaningful new generation. A new Runnerstone analysis prepared for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association finds that PJM’s four most recent capacity auctions will cost customers more than $63 billion, with the latest auction alone totaling $16.4 billion. Yet less than 0.5% of the capacity clearing the 2028-29 auction came from new generation.

“Customers have paid more than $60 billion through these four auctions, and where is the new generation?” said Lindsey Short, OMA managing director of advocacy and energy. “If record-high prices aren’t bringing new supply into the market, PJM needs to explain why customers should keep paying them.”

The analysis also points to PJM’s compressed auction schedule, changing treatment of generation resources and rapidly growing large-load forecasts as factors contributing to high prices. Transmission owners added 1,374.5 megawatts of large-load adjustments to the latest forecast while only 524.7 megawatts of new, uprated and reactivated generation was added to the cleared auction.

Those concerns take on added urgency as PJM prepares a special Reliability Backstop Procurement aimed at addressing its projected capacity shortfall, potentially creating another source of costs that could ultimately reach Ohio customers. 8/18/2026

Data centers are driving some of the biggest electricity forecasts Ohio has ever seen. But how much of that projected demand is real, and how much should existing customers be expected to pay for before it materializes?

That debate will come to Columbus on Thursday, Aug. 27 at the 2026 Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference, with a lineup that includes nationally recognized energy researcher Dr. Jonathan Koomey, U.S. Reps. Troy Balderson and Bob Latta, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis and Abhijeet Sathe of SB Energy, part of SoftBank Group.

Koomey will challenge assumptions behind forecasts of explosive data center electricity demand, while Balderson and Latta will bring the federal perspective on energy policy, grid reliability and rising costs. Seryak and Willis will examine whether PJM is delivering the generation and reliability customers are paying for, and Sathe will take attendees inside the proposed PORTS Technology Campus near Piketon, a major AI and energy development that could ultimately reach 10 gigawatts.

“There is too much money at stake to simply assume every data center forecast will come true,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Before customers pay for new infrastructure, the demand needs to be real and the numbers need to hold up.”

The conference will bring together the people challenging the forecasts, writing the rules, building the projects and paying the bills at a moment when Ohio’s energy decisions are carrying billions of dollars in consequences. 8/21/2026

Abhijeet Sathe, co-CEO of SB Energy (SoftBank Group), will headline an afternoon keynote at the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference on Aug. 27 focused on one of Ohio’s most ambitious energy and infrastructure projects.

Sathe will discuss the PORTS Technology Campus, a planned AI data center campus paired with large-scale power generation. The project includes new natural gas generation and a $4.2 billion SB Energy investment through AEP Ohio for new high-voltage transmission infrastructure.

His keynote will examine how the project is being financed, planned and built, and what it could mean for Ohio’s power system as AI drives new electricity demand.

“Ohio is making decisions now that will shape electricity costs and reliability for years,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA). “This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the company behind one of the state’s largest energy and infrastructure projects about how it plans to meet that demand.”

Registration closes this Thursday, Aug. 20. Join OMA in Columbus for the Energy Conference and hear directly from Sathe and other industry leaders shaping Ohio’s energy future. 8/13/2026

Well, imagine that.

After years of breathless forecasts about explosive data center electricity demand, new Wood Mackenzie analysis finds that utilities and grid operators are likely to commit to just 28% of the 1,066 GW currently being requested for U.S. data center projects. More than two-thirds of that requested power may never materialize.

The finding is another reminder of the enormous gap between projects seeking power and projects actually likely to get built. Wood Mackenzie has previously documented hundreds of gigawatts of proposed data center capacity still searching for power, compared with a much smaller amount backed by signed construction or electricity supply agreements.

“Who could have possibly predicted that every data center asking for power might not actually show up?” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Customers should not be stuck paying billions of dollars to build the grid around the most optimistic number on somebody’s spreadsheet.”

The lesson is becoming harder to ignore. Before speculative demand drives major generation and transmission spending, policymakers and grid operators need to separate serious projects from wishful thinking. 8/13/2026

Ohio electric bills are reaching record highs, but AEP is already pointing policymakers toward its preferred solution. In explaining the increases, the utility emphasized that Ohio law prevents it from owning power plants and said it is left waiting for the competitive market to respond.

“AEP’s answer to record-high electric bills is to let AEP put more costs on electric bills,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Re-regulation would guarantee the utility a return while forcing captive customers to absorb the risk. That is a great deal for AEP. It is a terrible deal for everyone paying the bill.”

Record-high bills should bring greater scrutiny of utility proposals, not become the sales pitch for putting customers back on the hook for utility-owned generation. 8/3/2026

Dr. Jonathan Koomey will open the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference on Aug. 27 with a closer look at the assumptions driving forecasts of explosive data center electricity demand.

Koomey is best known for Koomey’s Law, which found that the energy efficiency of computing historically doubled about every 18 months. That matters because forecasts built on today’s technology can badly overstate tomorrow’s electricity needs.

His keynote will examine how efficiency, technological change and uncertain demand should be reflected in data center load forecasts before speculative projections drive billions of dollars in grid spending and land on customer bills.

“Koomey’s research is a powerful reminder that tomorrow’s energy demand cannot be projected using today’s technology,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Before speculative forecasts trigger billions in grid spending, regulators need to test the assumptions, account for efficiency gains and make sure customers are not paying for demand that may never materialize.”

Only two weeks remain to register for the Aug. 27 conference. 8/7/2026

Exelon’s “high probability” data center load pipeline across its utilities in Illinois and the Mid-Atlantic fell nearly 40%, from 18 GW to 11 GW, after the company began requiring developers to make firmer financial commitments through transmission service agreements.

The drop did not occur in Ohio, but the lesson is directly relevant here. Seven gigawatts of supposedly likely demand disappeared once developers had to demonstrate that their projects were real.

“Exelon did what every utility and grid operator should be doing before speculative demand is used to justify billions of dollars in new spending,” said Lindsey Short, managing director of advocacy and energy services for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Require meaningful commitments, weed out the projects that exist only on paper and make sure customers are paying for actual need, not somebody’s wish list.”

Ohio policymakers and reporters should take note. Huge load projections deserve scrutiny, not automatic acceptance. 8/3/2026

AEP Ohio has cut disputed customer load forecasts by as much as 33% after the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) Energy Group challenged assumptions that did not hold up under scrutiny.

The original forecasts projected major electricity-use growth across several commercial and industrial customer classes, including some where expected data center growth was unlikely to materialize. OMA warned that those inflated projections could distort rates and shift costs among customers. PUCO staff agreed that several forecasts were significantly overstated and ordered AEP to update them.

The result is a far more realistic proposal. General service secondary and primary customers would now see increases of less than 1%, while transmission-level customers would see a 1.6% decrease.

“AEP’s original numbers did not survive contact with the evidence,” said Ryan Augsburger, president of the OMA. “We challenged the assumptions, PUCO forced a correction and customers are now looking at rates based on numbers that are actually credible. This is exactly why forecasts must be tested before they become customer bills.”

The correction is a win for customers, but it also proves the larger point. Unproven forecasts should be challenged in open PUCO proceedings, not baked into law before customers can test the assumptions and cost shifts behind them. 7/29/2026

Bad energy reporting does not just mislead readers. It can help turn speculative forecasts into billions of dollars in customer costs.

In a new RealClearEnergy column, Dave O’Neil, director of communications for The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, argues that too much coverage of electricity markets repeats crisis claims without seriously testing the assumptions behind them. Forecasts are reported as established demand. Proposed data centers are treated as operating facilities. Administrative market decisions are presented as proof of a physical power shortage.

The column points to proposed transmission projects in AES Ohio’s territory that could leave other customers exposed to more than $1.3 billion in costs, as well as a PJM capacity auction that directed roughly $16 billion to power suppliers while delivering little new generation.

“Too much energy coverage starts with the conclusion and works backward,” O’Neil said. “Reporters repeat the crisis claim, skip the hard questions and move straight to explaining why customers must pay. That is not scrutiny. It is stenography for the institutions asking Ohioans to absorb billions of dollars in new costs.”

Journalists are supposed to test claims, challenge assumptions and follow the money. When they simply repeat utility and grid-operator claims, speculative forecasts begin to look like settled facts and enormous customer costs begin to look inevitable. 7/27/2026