A substation built by AEP Ohio to power a stalled Intel chip plant could power a Meta data center in Licking County, Ohio.

According to reporting from Columbus Business First, the facility, which is built but yet to be used, could supply a Meta data center with 250MW of power for three years starting from next year. Meta would initially receive 120MW, expected to rise to the full amount in April. The full 500MW allotment slated for the Intel chip facility would be restored at the start of 2029.

AEP Ohio and a Meta subsidiary have appealed to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to approve the plan. In a recent filing, the companies argued that construction delays on Intel's $28 billion chip fab in New Albany had left the substation redundant.

Under the proposed agreement, Meta would reroute the power from the substation to its nearby data center.

It was described as a “win-win” deal by an AEP Ohio spokesperson, who went on to state that it would ensure “that customers will not incur any additional costs related to the [substation] during the Intel delay.”

In an email to Columbus Business First, Intel said that it supports the agreement as it “provides a productive solution that benefits the local community while ensuring sufficient power will be available to Intel in advance of our requirements for fab operations in Ohio.”

Intel broke ground on the facility in 2022, initially projecting that the first two buildings would come online this year. However, due to a series of delays, the facility is now slated to come online in 2030 or 2031. State officials continue to say the project will proceed.

Meta has had a presence in New Albany since 2017 and launched a data center campus there in 2020. In April 2022, the company reported that it was set to expand the site, adding two buildings totalling around one million sq ft (92,900 sqm). In June, it was reported that the 200MW Socrates South Power Generation Project had been approved to supply behind-the-meter power to Meta’s data center in New Albany.

New Albany is home to several major data center developments, with Microsoft, AWS, and Google all with a presence.