Amid data center boom, consumers shoulder costs of upgrading the electrical grid
News Clip0:56NPR·MD·10/5/2026
The report examines how the rapid growth of AI data centers is driving costly electrical-grid upgrades. It says local utility customers may ultimately pay for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments, with a Maryland forecast estimating that AI-related demand could add up to $216 annually to an average electric bill.
electricity
Huge new data centers have many people wondering who pays for the upgrades to the electrical grid needed to power the facilities.
Connor Waldoch is chief strategy officer at Grid Status, a company that focuses providing electricity-market data. He says the costs to upgrade the grid for AI are being shouldered by everyone who buys electricity. “We are talking tens or hundreds of millions of dollars that are being built by these local utilities that are ultimately going to end up in customers’ bills.”
He says no one has quite figured out the fairest way to divvy up those costs. A 2024 forecast in Maryland found that AI would add as much as $216 a year to the average customer’s bill.
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