Gov. Shapiro files petition to protect electricity customers from rising costs
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission seeking to protect electricity customers from costs and reliability risks associated with large data centers. The petition supports a complaint by the Office of Consumer Advocate and calls for PPL to create a separate customer class for data centers and assign them responsibility for related grid costs.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to allow his administration to intervene in a proceeding involving PPL’s electricity rates, service classifications and procedures. The filing supports a complaint from the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, which argues that existing policies could shift data center-related costs and reliability risks onto other customers.
Shapiro is also advocating for a separate customer class for large data centers and for those customers to pay costs associated with regional electricity reliability. The petition is intended to advance his executive order on data center cost allocation and would mark the first intervention by a Pennsylvania governor in a PUC proceeding in at least 15 years, according to the administration.