Dallas-based Compass Datacenters is building a  data center for US electric utility American Electric Power (AEP).

AEP, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the larger US utilities, with 38 GigaWatts of generating capacity. That would be enough to send 30 of Emmett Brown’s Back to the Future DeLoreans travelling through time, but AEP prefers to serve five million customers in 11 states.

Compass will build a dedicated data center which AEP will use to manage its infrastructure and provide customer services.

“This new facility will provide AEP with enhanced control and the ability to do smart IT capacity planning,” said Compass founder and CEO Chris Crosby.”

In June Compass completed a US$100m round of funding to support its expansion into additional markets and to fund new data center construction projects for its customers.

The funding consists of US$34m in additional equity commitments and $65m in additional capacity under Compass’s now $110m revolving credit facility.