Image Source: Federico Beccari on Unsplash
President Trump announced a “ratepayer protection pledge” this week, where Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon promise to pay for their own data center electricity costs. The President claims this will lower our power bills and protect us from rising energy costs tied to the AI boom. The pledge is completely voluntary with zero enforcement mechanisms.
According to recently released data from Synergy, nearly 800 data centers are being planned across the United States. The average size of a proposed data center in the U.S. in 2024 was 300 megawatts, which is as much energy as it takes to power around 240,000 homes.
The Electric Power Research Institute estimates data centers will consume 9% to 17% of all U.S. electric power by 2030, up from 4% to 5% today. Microsoft recently inked a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island’s nuclear plant. Several tech companies have outstanding RFPs to build their own power plants.
Most heavy commercial users of electricity already negotiate separate rate structures to avoid shifting costs to residential customers. However, Michael Jacobs, Senior Manager, Energy in the UCS Climate and Energy Program, calculated that seven Eastern states charged ratepayers $4.4 billion for grid expansions serving data centers in 2024 alone, with Virginia accounting for nearly half that total. The math isn’t mathing.
The AI data center boom will stress the power grid beyond anything we’ve seen. Until someone invents “star in a jar,” electricity costs will rise regardless of what a few tech companies pledge to pay.
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