Meta's Hyperion data center campus is under construction in Louisiana. Photo Credit: Meta.
Many of the country’s largest utilities on Thursday joined President Donald Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge calling on data center developers to pay for their own energy upgrades.
American Electric Power, NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, and Southern Co. are among the new signatories, which overall has expanded to nearly 200 utilities, data center companies, and a handful of Republican governors. Seven hyperscalers initially signed the pledge in March, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle.
The voluntary pledge is aimed at ensuring data centers’ skyrocketing power demands don’t raise energy bills for consumers. Its framework largely reflects the kinds of large-load tariffs that 25 utilities around the country have either implemented or proposed for hyperscalers, according to a Latitude Intelligence analysis — with more being filed this year. That includes subsidiaries of AEP, NextEra, Duke, and Southern Co.
The White House and some utilities are touting billions of dollars in cost savings due to the pledge and new investments from data centers. Yet utilities have also asked state regulators to approve $18.6 billion in rate hikes so far this year. It’s a trend that’s likely to continue, several analysts told Latitude Media.
