- Major tech companies have pledged to cover their fair share of electricity costs for data centers, but uncertainty exists regarding how these costs will be calculated, leading to concerns about potential burdens on ratepayers.
- A report highlighted that expected power demand from data centers is a primary reason for $23 billion in customer price increases in the PJM market area through at least 2028.
- State utility commissions set electricity prices by identifying utility costs, allocating them to customer groups (residential, commercial, industrial), and designing prices to recover these costs, with complexities in determining who bears specific infrastructure investments.
- Cost allocation aims to assign costs to customers who cause them, but shared grid upgrades (e.g., substation upgrades) may be spread among all users, with analysts reviewing thousands of cost items to determine each group's share.