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Do data centers raise your electric bill?

In the places building the most data center capacity, yes, and mostly through three channels: a wholesale capacity market that charges every customer in the region, new generation and transmission that lands in a normal rate case, and tariffs some states have started writing specifically for large loads. Which one applies to your bill depends on your state and your utility, and the newest tariffs exist precisely to keep the cost off your bill instead.

The capacity market channel

PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for thirteen Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states plus Washington, DC, buys power plant availability years in advance at an annual auction. In July 2024 that auction's price rose nearly tenfold from the year before, and FERC approved a price cap to slow further increases. Even against that cap, the next auction, for the year beginning June 2026, cleared at $329.17 per megawatt-day, 22 percent above the prior record. The auction after that, for 2027 and 2028, cleared higher still, at $333.44. PJM said the increase was driven almost entirely by a 5,250 megawatt jump in its demand forecast, most of it data centers. Utilities buy this capacity for every customer and pass the cost into the default supply price, whether or not you live anywhere near a data center.

Large-load tariffs: making data centers pay their own way

A handful of states have started writing rules that keep this cost off everyone else's bill. In Ohio, the state utility commission ordered AEP Ohio on July 9, 2025 to file a new tariff for data centers. New facilities over 25 megawatts must commit to paying for at least 85 percent of their contracted capacity for 12 years, a four year ramp followed by an eight year floor, so if a project cancels or shrinks, existing customers are not left paying for power plants and wires built to serve it.

In Virginia, the State Corporation Commission ordered Dominion Energy in August 2026 to build a policy that assigns transmission line and substation costs directly to the data centers and other large loads that need them, instead of spreading those costs to everyone. Under Dominion's new large-load rate class, those customers pay transmission charges on at least 85 percent of their highest demand. The commission's own numbers show why it matters: Dominion's original transmission filing would have added $2.90 a month to a typical 1,000 kWh residential bill; the direct-assignment approach cuts that to about $0.94.

In Georgia, the Public Service Commission approved a rule, effective February 2025, letting Georgia Power bill any customer using more than 100 megawatts, almost always a data center, for the upstream generation, transmission and distribution costs its load requires. The same rule extended contract terms from five years to fifteen, so the company can still recover those costs if a project leaves early.

Where the cost still lands on everyone

These tariffs are new, and they apply only in the states and to the load sizes they name. Everywhere else, and for smaller data centers, new generation and grid buildout to serve growing demand still goes into the normal rate base and is split among all customers the next time the utility files a rate case, the way any other growth has always been paid for. The PJM capacity market has no equivalent line at all: its cost is baked into a wholesale price charged to every default-service customer in the region, with no separate accounting for which customers' growth drove it up.

Cases on this site tied to data center load

Evergy Missouri Metro rate case Evergy Metro, MO
Pending Base rate case

This is Evergy's opening ask for its Kansas City area customers; the company already cut it once because of new data center revenue, and the case is now in its evidentiary hearing with no decision yet.

+$18a month
We Energies general electric and gas rate case for 2027 and 2028 We Energies, WI
Pending Base rate case

As filed, a typical residential bill would rise about 13 dollars a month in 2027 and 8 to 9 dollars more in 2028, a combined 16.3 percent, but how much of that is really tied to data centers versus other grid needs is one of the contested questions in the case.

+$13a month
Ameren Missouri new base rate case, 2026-2027 Union Electric, MO
Pending Base rate case

This new Ameren Missouri request follows closely on the heels of the case approved in April 2025; nothing has been decided yet.

+$13a month
2027 electric rate case DTE Electric, MI
Pending Base rate case

If approved as filed, this would be a bigger increase than the 4.1 percent DTE got approved in its last case; MPSC Staff and the state Attorney General both want the increase cut well below what DTE asked for.

+$12a month, est.
Oglethorpe Power gas generation expansion Oglethorpe Power, GA
Pending Rate matter, gas

Oglethorpe Power, which generates most of the electricity Georgia's EMCs sell, is adding natural gas plants it ties to data center and industrial load. EMC rates are set by each cooperative's board, not the Public Service Commission, so watch your EMC's rate notices.

no figure yet
MEAG Power load growth planning MEAG Power, GA
Pending Rate matter

MEAG Power supplies the city owned utilities and expects data center load on its system to roughly double within about five years. City utility rates are set by each city, not the Public Service Commission.

no figure yet
Entergy Louisiana's second Meta gas plant expansion Entergy Louisiana, LA
Pending Rate matter, gas Hearing Dec 16

This case, still open as of August 2026, will help decide whether seven new gas plants built mainly for one company's data center get repaid entirely by that company or partly by everyday Entergy Louisiana customers. A commission decision was reportedly expected around December 2026, though that timeline was not confirmed by the commission itself.

no figure yet
2026 resource plan and large load contract NV Energy (Nevada Power), NV
Pending Rate matter

Nothing here changes a bill today. What matters is whether the large load contract survives intact; if it is weakened, the cost of plants built for data centers starts showing up in the next general rate cases around 2027 and 2028.

no figure yet
American Transmission Company Port Washington data center interconnection project Statewide, WI
Pending Statewide

Transmission upgrades like this are typically billed to every electric customer in the state through transmission charges, not just to the data center that made the new line necessary, which is why the cost allocation question matters for ordinary bills even outside the counties involved.

no figure yet
MGE Very Large Customer tariff filing Madison Gas and Electric, WI
Pending Rider or surcharge

Nothing changes on home bills unless and until this tariff is approved, but its purpose is to keep future data center grid costs off residential rates.

no figure yet
Oracle subscription to Point Beach nuclear power costs We Energies, WI
Pending Rate matter

If regulators approve it, Oracle would cover part of We Energies' nuclear power costs instead of spreading them to all customers, which the company says will lower everyone's fuel charges rather than raise them.

no figure yet

All 63 cases tied to data center load

Where to check

Our sister site, Is a Data Center Coming, tracks proposed, under construction and paused data center projects, address by address. Check whether one is coming near you, or see projects that were stopped after local pushback. Not every rate case on this site with a data center connection is really driven by one, and not every data center project raises bills; read the case page for the mechanism the filing actually claims.

Sources