For years, electricity costs at the Belden Brick Company in Sugarcreek, Ohio, barely moved. Last year they jumped by 90%, driven largely by the data centres multiplying across the region to feed the AI boom.
The 141-year-old manufacturer, whose bricks feature in landmarks including the Alamo and the University of Notre Dame, traced most of the pain to one line on its bill. Its monthly capacity charge climbed from $1,600 to $12,000, part of the same strain now showing up as households across Europe are asked to cut power use and US utilities line up $1.4 trillion in grid spending.
Belden Brick is one of many manufacturers across the heartland facing the squeeze, according to a Reuters review of energy data and interviews with nearly a dozen firms. Factory power bills, a core cost, are rising faster than those for most homes and businesses.
The pressure is concentrated in the 13-state region run by grid operator PJM Interconnection, which runs from New Jersey to northern Illinois and south to Tennessee. A single server warehouse there can use as much power as a mid-sized town, and five of the eight states seen as emerging data centre hubs sit in the Rust Belt, per Synergy Research Group.
