Explanation
Background
This ordinance requires the Director of Columbus Water and Power (CWP) to establish peak rates and/or other fees and charges to large load/high-volume industrial and manufacturing users.
Data center growth has become one of the defining utility policy questions facing cities nationwide, and Central Ohio - home to more than one hundred operational data centers, with close to two hundred statewide - sits at the center of that growth. Because chip fabrication, brewing and beverage, and food-processing facilities can place comparably significant demands on the City’s water, sewer, and power systems, this ordinance is built around industry-neutral principles of volumetric use and infrastructure cost-causation rather than any single sector.
Council began this work on November 24, 2025, when it adopted a floor amendment, introduced by Councilmember Wyche, directing Columbus Water and Power (CWP) to report back by June 30, 2026 on ensuring high water users support their fair share of infrastructure investment. That June 2026 report confirmed that the peak volume and variability of high-volume users justify allocating costs based on cost-causation rather than total consumption alone, cautioned that a volumetric-only rate structure effectively shifts infrastructure costs onto residential and small-commercial customers, and cited precedent from other jurisdictions, including a tiered high-demand surcharge used by the Prince William County Service Authority in Virginia. CWP is also evaluating complementary tools such as inclining block rates and capacity or connection charges, particularly as the new 48-million-gallon-per-day Home Road Water Plant expands the system that future growth will depend on.
This ordinance does not itself rewrite the City’s rate structure; that technical and legally complex work belongs to CWP, in consultation with the Utility Advisory Board. Instead, it sets a clear expectation and deadline for CWP to bring Council a concrete...
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