{"id":403420,"date":"2026-08-11T09:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403420\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:58:36","slug":"texas-power-bills-surge-as-infrastructure-costs-data-center-growth-strain-the-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403420\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas power bills surge as infrastructure costs, data center growth strain the grid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TYLER, Texas (KLTV) \u2014 Electric bills tend to be a bit higher when it\u2019s more than 100 degrees out, but East Texans have already been seeing a rise in electricity costs for several years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Texas energy providers have not been immune to the rising prices seen across the U.S. economy. As infrastructure becomes more costly to maintain and grow, Texas residents have seen a substantial increase in their monthly bills. These costs have only been worsened by data center projects that are taking a staggering portion of Texas\u2019 electricity capacity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe are seeing people come in with bills that are 6, 7, 800 dollars and are really struggling to pay them,\u201d said Andrea Wilson- Lobaugh, the executive director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pathhelps.org\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pathhelps.org\/\">PATH<\/a> in Tyler. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Data from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electricchoice.com\/historical-electricity-pricing\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.electricchoice.com\/historical-electricity-pricing\/\">ElectricChoice<\/a> shows Texas rates have risen around 40% since 2020, with an average residential rate of 11.50\u00a2 per kWh up to 16.11\u00a2 per kWh. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re about 25 to 30% lower than the national average here at SWEPCO,\u201d said Mark Robinson, the power company\u2019s external affairs manager. \u201cBut everything has become more expensive, as everyone is painfully aware of. And so we see from wire to infrastructure, transmission facilities, substation facilities, everything\u2019s increased in price, and so that does impact our bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Providers across the state are also working on continued infrastructure improvements, mandated after the winter storm of 2021. Some of those costs are passed onto customers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/swepcosolutions.com\/programs\/residential-programs\/#texas-residential-programs\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/swepcosolutions.com\/programs\/residential-programs\/#texas-residential-programs\">SWECPO<\/a> and many providers have billing plans that can help lower the impact of winter and summer peaks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe can help you blow in insulation inside of your attic, seal windows, check your HVAC,\u201d said Robinson. \u201cThere are even rebates for lighting, or if you need to replace your HVAC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bills are rising as the state works to manage data centers and their impact on the grid. Last week, Governor Abbott ordered a pause on all new connections until a state audit is complete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Abbott\u2019s office say ERCOT is tracking 474 gigawatts of connection requests, 90% of which are data centers. That\u2019s more than five times the current peak demand of the grid. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KLTV) \u2014 Electric bills tend to be a bit higher when it\u2019s more than 100 degrees&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[141362,141365,141363,27,141364,141361,29,28],"class_list":["post-403420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ercot-data-center-grid-impact","tag-governor-abbott-data-center-pause","tag-swepco-energy-bill-assistance","tag-texas","tag-texas-electric-bill-increase-2026","tag-texas-electricity-rates-rising","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}