- The US data center’s electricity consumption is expected to quadruple by 2035
- There has been an increase in the number of sign-ups for Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Act
- Residential electricity prices have increased by 25% over the past four years
US data centers are expected to use four times more power by 2035 than they currently use, bringing the total consumption to one-fifth of the country’s electricity production.
In an effort to quell national discontent over artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to support the capability, more than 200 entities have joined President Trump’s pledge not to pass on rising electricity costs to consumers.
But Trump’s pledge is entirely voluntary and has little control over electricity prices, which are determined by state regulators and electricity buyers and sellers — and in some states with huge data center expansions, electricity prices have already risen significantly.
Electricity consumption set to quadruple
A new report from BloombergNEF as seen by TechCrunch predicts that global AI computing will rise to as much as 200 gigawatts over the next decade, with most of it concentrated in the United States. In addition, many already strained power grids across the US will struggle to handle new data center connections without massive infrastructure expansions. Current infrastructure developments have seen the US government seize private property from landowners using eminent domain.
The PJM interconnection across Virginia and Illinois is expected to see 34% of its electricity go to data centers over the next decade. During the same period, Texas’ ERCOT will have to divert 22% of its electricity to data centers.
However, there is a caveat. The BloombergNEF report is likely a conservative estimate. Compared to a report released in December, BloombergNEF’s new electricity consumption estimates are 83% higher than the previous forecast.
The strain caused by the build-up of AI data centers is even causing a rift between utilities and grid operators. American Electric Power threatened to pull out of the PJM interconnection because of the imbalance between supply and demand, which caused prices to rise by as much as 76% in the last year.
Trump promises to end power price hikes caused by big tech
According to exclusive WSJ reporting, there has been a huge increase in sign-ups for Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which is a voluntary commitment not to pass on the increase in electricity rates caused by AI data center expansion to consumers. The pledge calls on private companies to “build, bring or buy” new electricity sources.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI were among the first to sign up back in March 2026, but since then the nation’s largest utility and data center developers have also joined the pledge, including NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Equinix and Digital Realty.
New obligations for the Ratepayer Protection Pledge are expected to be announced by Trump at an Environmental Protection Agency event, but Trump’s track record on environmental protection has been less than stellar. New fossil fuel power generation facilities can now speed up their application process, and Trump’s “live, baby, live” policy has significantly reduced funding and support for clean and renewable energy sources, which are far cheaper than their fossil fuel counterparts.
Despite the promise not to pass on the rising cost of electricity to consumers, there have already been significant increases in consumer electricity prices across the United States.
According to ElectricChoice statistics, average residential electricity prices in the U.S. are up 7.4% year-over-year, with Ohio alone seeing a 19.4% increase over the same period. 13 US states have seen double-digit increases in electricity rates year-over-year, while only 5 states have seen rates remain unchanged or decrease.
In the past four years, residential electricity prices have risen by 25%, with investment in grid modernization and record data center construction cited as two of the main reasons for the rapid growth in pricing.
According to Cleanview, the US currently has 1,214 operational data centers with another 1,714 planned or under construction.
A bill that seeks to actually hold tech companies accountable for their contribution to the rise in consumer electricity rates has been introduced to Congress, called the Ratepayer Protection Act. The Bipatisan bill appears to introduce a “large load standard” that would require technology companies to bear the cost of the energy they use, along with upgrades to the local grids they connect to.
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