{"id":248894,"date":"2026-07-21T23:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248894\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T23:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:44:07","slug":"utility-rates-pa-groups-say-renewables-will-lower-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248894\/","title":{"rendered":"Utility rates: Pa. groups say renewables will lower bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

One reason for rising rates is the increased demand from data centers, which are rushing to keep up with the expansion of artificial intelligence. That squeeze between supply and demand for electricity has increased costs for ratepayers. Critics have pointed to a backlog of new clean energy projects that are slow to come online<\/a>. PJM Interconnection, operator of the largest grid in the nation that covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, has said it has instituted reforms to unclog the queue.\n<\/p>\n

PJM officials last week said data center demand continues to push up electricity prices in the region. The grid operator conducted an auction to secure electricity supply for 2028 to 2029, which it said resulted in a shortfall and would put ratepayers on the hook for an additional $16.4 billion dollars in electricity costs.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese auction results show that demand for electricity continues to grow faster than electricity supply,\u201d said David Mills, PJM president and CEO, in a statement. \u201cAt the same time, PJM recognizes how this supply-and-demand imbalance impacts the reliability of the system and costs for consumers. We are working with government and industry leaders on multiple fronts to restore that balance by bringing on new generation as fast as possible and managing the growth of new load on the grid.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The increase in energy supply for this recent auction was less than 1% and the bulk of the new generation will come from natural gas.\n <\/p>\n

The coalition said it wants to see reforms at the Public Utility Commission and at PJM Interconnection. The groups support House Bill 1834<\/a>, introduced by state Rep. Robert Matzie, D-Beaver, which would require data centers to provide their own energy and mandate a portion be from new clean energy sources.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to remove barriers to clean energy generation,\u201d said Katie Blume, legislative director of Conservation Voters of PA, which is spearheading the campaign. \u201cWe want to have people be able to adopt low-cost energy technologies, whether that is battery storage, solar, wind, geothermal. These are increasingly the cheapest sources of new power.\u201d<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Despite the loss of federal subsidies, a recent report from the investment bank Lazard<\/a> found that utility scale solar and onshore wind remain cheaper than fossil fuel generation.\n<\/p>\n

In addition to costs, Blume is optimistic that advances in technology will allow energy-hungry data centers to use solar, wind or geothermal.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not be 100% of what data centers ultimately use, but we can get a significant amount of renewable energy there and get data centers or other large load users to use renewable energy, and we can keep increasing that,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Blume said the goal is to have Pennsylvania reach a target of 35% clean energy by 2035, while also creating jobs and economic development.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is an affordability-first agenda,\u201d Blume said.\n<\/p>\n

The key to that, said Marx, is reforming how the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission regulates utilities.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One reason for rising rates is the increased demand from data centers, which are rushing to keep up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7753,12990,28,30,29,5206],"class_list":["post-248894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-electricity","tag-energy-prices","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}