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As the U.S. approaches the midterms — and both electricity prices and data center opposition are major voter priorities — whether data centers can actually offset utility bills and benefit local grids has become a key political talking point.
At the same time, there’s been a dramatic uptick in the creation of large load tariffs at the state level designed to do exactly that. Over the last two years, utilities have started to converge around certain framework elements to help shield existing ratepayers from the costs and risks of data center growth, like 15-year minimum term lengths, exit fees, and minimum demand charges. Even so, the price data centers will eventually pay to secure grid power is likely to vary dramatically across the country.
According to an analysis conducted by RMI, some utilities are poised to pull in massive sums each year as large hyperscale campuses come online. Portland General Electric, for example, could bring in more than $300 million per year for a 300-megawatt data center, under its large load tariff framework, approved by Oregon’s public utilities commission this spring. This was the most lucrative of all the tariffs that RMI evaluated.
