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Data center power demand could raise homeowners’ electricity costs

Analysis by HousingWire highlights that utility rate structures and infrastructure spending tied to data centers may be shifted to other customers, potentially affecting affordability.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Residential

Data center growth could eventually affect what homeowners pay for electricity, but the impact depends on local utility rates, infrastructure plans, and regulatory rules, according to HousingWire.

HousingWire reports that researchers reviewed nearly 50 regulatory proceedings involving utility rates for data centers to understand how costs tied to new power plants, transmission lines, and other upgrades might be allocated. The findings focus on whether rate structures and infrastructure spending could shift some costs associated with serving large technology customers to other users within a utility’s service territory.

Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program, said the issue comes down to who pays when utilities build new infrastructure for data centers. Because most households pay their own electric bills, he noted that the utility’s model of spreading costs across consumers could collide with the scale of new demand coming from data centers.

HousingWire also said real estate agents should consider how data center development can affect clients beyond power costs, including water use, noise, and infrastructure impacts, as these factors can influence buying and selling decisions and potentially property values.

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