Here’s a sentence that would have sounded dystopian five years ago: your local power company can take your land so that an AI data center gets electricity. That’s not a hypothetical. It’s happening right now across multiple US states.
Utilities are increasingly using eminent domain, the government’s power to seize private property for “public use,” to acquire land for high-voltage transmission lines. The catch is that these lines are primarily built to feed private AI data centers, not neighborhood grids.
What’s actually happening on the ground
Georgia Power is working to acquire over 300 parcels of land for a 35-mile transmission line called the Ashley-Park Wansley project. That sounds like standard utility infrastructure until you learn that roughly 70-80% of the power flowing through those lines is earmarked for data center use.
Private homes sit on some of those parcels. Homeowners who refuse to sell could face eminent domain proceedings, which is a polite way of saying the state forces the sale whether you agree or not.
