NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson Seeks Separate Rates for Data Centers and Other Big Power Users

As part of his office’s arguments on behalf of ratepayers in the latest Duke Energy rate hike request, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson says that data centers and other very large electric users should pay a different rate than residential and other customers.

The Cost of Data Centers

Jackson says data centers and other customers that use very large amounts of electricity should be placed in a new, separate rate class that accounts for the strain their energy use puts on the grid and the additional generation Duke has to build to serve them. “[These data centers] use massive amounts of energy, they strain the whole system, and going into this new era we need specific protections to make sure families don’t see rates spike because of gigantic new users on the grid,” said Jackson in an emailed report. This argument contrasts with Duke’s recommendations, which propose that some of those costs be spread across the system and paid for by other customers. 

“[Duke’s] approach shifts significant costs and risks onto other ratepayers and gives [Duke] significant discretion to negotiate terms with prospective large load customers without appropriate review by the Commission,” testified Justin Brant, energy expert witness for the NC Attorney General’s Office. 

“The large load customers currently proposed and under construction represent new loads of unprecedented size that require unprecedented system upgrades to serve…The size and scale of data centers create new risks and mean that frameworks that have worked well to create fair cost allocation outcomes in the past will not necessarily work as well in the future.” 

What Can We Do?

You can see further discussion of the impacts of data centers and the growing resistance to their development in North Carolina.