The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has rejected a bid from Amazon, Google, and several other major data center developers to nix American Electric Power’s (AEP) recently approved rate structure for the data center sector.

The new rate, which PUCO approved in July, will require new data center customers in Ohio to pay for a portion of their energy requests, even if they use less, to cover the cost of the infrastructure required to bring electricity to those facilities. AEP introduced the new rate class in an effort to shield other ratepayers from bearing the cost of large data centers, which are proliferating across the state.

“The commission finds that several arguments are nearly identical to those raised in post-hearing briefing and that the applications for rehearing do not identify any error demonstrating that our prior consideration of this matter was inadequate, against the manifest weight of the evidence, or otherwise unlawful and unreasonable,” PUCO wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.

The ruling upholds the settlement, which will see new data centers pay for a minimum of 85 percent of the energy they say they need each month. For example, if a data center requires 1GW of power, it will be charged for at least 850MW.

The new rules will also require data centers to provide proof they are financially viable and able to meet those requirements, and pay an exit fee if their project is canceled or unable to meet the obligations outlined in the electric service agreement contract.

The requirements will now be in place for 12 years, and according to AEP Ohio, they will permit the utility to end the moratorium on new central Ohio data center agreements, which had been instituted as a means to protect ratepayers.

“OCC applauds the PUCO for standing up for AEP’s consumers instead of giving in to the demands of power-hungry data centers,” Maureen Willis, agency director of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, said in a statement.

Ohio, in particular, has been susceptible to ratepayer increases. According to reports, in Columbus, the capital, the average residential bill is set to increase by $27 per month, significantly driven by the growth of data centers in the city and broader region.

The settlement continues a trend of states seeking to protect residential utility customers and small businesses from bearing the financial burden of new transmission upgrades and power generation needed to accommodate new data centers.

Last week, Dominion Energy proposed a new rate class for data centers. The proposal would apply to utility customers who consume more than 25MW of energy and have a monthly load factor of more than 75 percent. This will result in many, if not most, of the approximately 450 data centers within its coverage zone being classified in the new customer class.

Before this, the Oregon legislature passed a bill to ensure that data centers and cryptocurrency operations cover a fair share of the costs associated with new power plants and transmission lines.