The AI explosion means millions are paying more for electricity

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/27/electricity-rates-ohio-data-centers-ai/

https://archive.ph/1mLyK

The AI explosion means millions are paying more for electricity
The data centers required for Big Tech are driving up electricity demand — and prices.
By Peter Whoriskey

This summer, across a vast stretch of the eastern United States, monthly home electric bills jumped. In Trenton, New Jersey, the bill for a typical home rose $26. In Philadelphia, it increased about $17. In Pittsburgh, it went up $10. And in Columbus, Ohio, it spiked $27.

Few customers were happy, of course, but even fewer knew exactly why the rates had climbed so quickly.

This time around, though, it is possible to trace the price hikes in these cities to a specific source: the boom in data centers, those large warehouses of technology that support artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other Big Tech wonders. They consume huge amounts of electricity, and, as they proliferate, the surging demand for electricity has driven up prices for millions of people, including residential customers who may not ever use AI or cloud computing.

The ranks of the companies building the data centers — Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon — include some of the nation’s biggest and most prosperous companies, and many affected residents resent having to pay more because of the tech companies’ rising electricity demand. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

“It’s definitely not fair,” said Alicia Tolbert of Columbus. She does merchandising for department stores, and her husband is a truck driver. “I really can’t afford it.”

“The Big Tech companies suck up the electricity, and we end up paying higher prices,” said Carrie Killingsworth, who works in financial services. “I’m not comfortable with average customers subsidizing billion-dollar companies.”

...