Analysis: AI Data Centers Have Driven Up U.S. Electricity Prices by $23 Billion, Costs Likely to be Borne by Residents

BlockBeats News, July 14th, according to Fortune citing a research report, the rapid expansion of AI data centers in the United States has significantly driven up public electricity costs. The PJM Market Monitoring Unit, which oversees the power grid in 14 states in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, estimates that the additional electricity demand from data centers will lead to an additional cost of about $23 billion for electricity users, and this impact will last at least until the end of 2028.

The report stated that although many large tech companies have pledged to bear the additional power infrastructure costs, since the costs of public facilities such as transmission lines, substations, and grid upgrades are usually uniformly shared by regulatory agencies, some of the costs may still be shifted to residents and ordinary commercial users.

The research also pointed out that some data centers can reduce their electricity consumption during peak hours by flexibly adjusting their power load, thereby reducing the grid costs allocated based on peak loads. However, despite this adjustment, they still consume a large amount of electricity, resulting in their actual costs being lower than the strain they put on the grid.

Analysis believes that as AI infrastructure construction continues to accelerate, issues such as electricity cost sharing mechanisms, data center electricity pricing, and residential electricity price increases are becoming important topics facing U.S. energy regulation.