\n Data centers have powered the internet for years, but with the rise of artificial intelligence, they are projected to need eye-popping amounts of power, along with costly infrastructure upgrades to deliver it. A 2024 report<\/a> by the US Department of Energy estimated that data centers would use between 6.7 and 12% of the nation\u2019s electricity by 2028.\n <\/p>\n \n Utility customers in neighboring Maryland and Washington, DC, are some of the first in the country starting to see the impacts of the data center boom showing up on their residential electricity bills. The higher costs for BGE customers like Carstarphen are being spread across fall and spring months, when usage is typically low. But they don\u2019t show up as a line item on the bill; the costs are tucked into customers\u2019 electricity supply charges, which typically denote how much energy they consume each month.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cExisting customers are taking hits now and will take much greater hits going forward,\u201d said Maryland People\u2019s Counsel David Lapp, the state\u2019s top official focused on consumer advocacy for utility bills.\n <\/p>\n \n Carstarphen noticed. Her August to September bills represented the biggest one-month increase in her electric supply costs this year.\n <\/p>\n \n Carstarphen uses AI for work, and she said she\u2019s happy to pay more in her individual subscription fees for the data centers\u2019 increased electricity needs. But she doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to foist the costs onto everyone, including people who don\u2019t use AI.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be subsidizing [the AI companies],\u201d Carstarphen said. \u201cThey have enough money.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As utility bills in the Mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country start to balloon, there is an increasing push among states to make sure companies \u2014 not consumers \u2014 are the ones paying more for power and the high-voltage transmission lines needed to deliver it.\n <\/p>\n \n Measures to do so in states like Ohio have been opposed by big tech companies, which are pushing to spread costs to other users. But some of these same companies that operate Virginia data centers, including Microsoft and Google, say they already cover the cost of their own energy and favor protecting residential ratepayers. CNN also reached out to Amazon \u2014 which has a major data center footprint<\/a> in Virginia \u2014 but a spokesperson declined to comment.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMicrosoft\u202fpays for the electricity we consume and for our share of infrastructure costs\u202fto generate and deliver that electricity to our sites,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s vice president of energy Bobby Hollis told CNN in a statement. Hollis said the company supports utility and regulatory work \u201cto make sure these costs\u202fare transparently calculated\u202fand assigned to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis work helps ensure that our neighbors and the local community do not pay for our share.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The trouble is, these rising costs aren\u2019t just about electricity being used and infrastructure being built right now. Customers are also paying for the future.\n <\/p>\n \n There are two main ways data centers have driven up costs in Maryland and other mid-Atlantic states: by needing lots of electricity that is available even at peak demand, and by needing new infrastructure deliver that electricity.\n <\/p>\n \n Maryland is one of 13 states, plus DC, that are part of a little-known nonprofit called PJM Interconnection, which helps to make sure there\u2019s enough electricity to meet demand and to move it where it\u2019s needed. PJM is one of 10<\/a> regional grid operators in the country \u2014 all of them crucial to keeping the lights on.\n <\/p>\n \n The September spike showing up on Carstarphen\u2019s bill is also coming from what markets anticipate the data centers will need in the future. Because demand for electricity is expected to climb, PJM needs more on deck, accessible years from now. And that future generation is expensive. During the most recent price auction, prices had jumped over 1,000% compared to two years prior. If it were not for a cap added at the last minute, the increase would have been even higher.\n <\/p>\n \n The spike in Mid-Atlantic states was driven both by that massive future data center demand and by the fact that the generation capacity in the region has been simultaneously falling.\n <\/p>\n \n It represents \u201cthe tip of the iceberg,\u201d according to Marina Domingues, head of US new energies at Norwegian firm Rystad Energy. \u201cThere\u2019s so much more to come because of that increased need for power and upgrades.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n PJM spokesperson Jeffrey Shields said regional data center growth is \u201csubstantially\u201d driving higher prices through normal supply-and-demand imbalance.\n <\/p>\n \n However, independent watchdog group Monitoring Analytics, which tracks PJM\u2019s price auctions, said in a recent report<\/a> that it would be \u201cmisleading\u201d to call this situation a simple supply-and-demand mismatch.\n <\/p>\n \n Monitoring Analytics said the current price spikes \u201care almost entirely the result of large load additions from data centers,\u201d and that data centers alone inflated PJM\u2019s latest power price auction by over $9.3 billion.\n <\/p>\n \n The report said the data center explosion was \u201cunique and unprecedented and uncertain\u201d and required \u201ca different approach than simply asserting that it is just supply and demand.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Other costs are looming. In the last two years, PJM has proposed over $11 billion or more in transmission upgrades in the region, primarily to serve new data center load growth.\n <\/p>\n \n These costs are shouldered by utilities, who pass them on to ratepayers \u2014 spreading the expenses over decades of line-item bill fees. Including rate of return, the cost could eventually top out around $40 billion, said Lapp, the Maryland consumer advocate.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the equivalent of Maryland\u2019s (entire electricity) demand built up over more than a century, being built in Northern Virginia in five years,\u201d Lapp said.\n <\/p>\n \n PJM\u2019s system has long been designed to spread the costs of building electrical infrastructure across its whole region, on the idea that such infrastructure will directly benefit the public that pays for it, regardless of which utility their bill comes from. But a recent Harvard Law School paper<\/a> found that Virginia and Maryland ratepayers are on the hook for the lion\u2019s share of transmission being built to accommodate, not residential customers, but Virginia\u2019s data center growth.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWithout reforms, consumers will be paying billions of dollars for regional infrastructure that is designed to address the needs of just a few of the world\u2019s wealthiest corporations,\u201d wrote legal fellow Eliza Martin and Ari Peskoe, director of the Harvard Law School\u2019s electricity law initiative. \u201cResidential ratepayers are not causing PJM to plan new transmission.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Exelon, a company that owns several Mid-Atlantic utilities including BGE, requires data centers to \u201cpay for transmission services in proportion to the load they request, ensuring that any revenues are credited back to residential and small business customers,\u201d an Exelon company spokesperson told CNN in a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n Maryland is far from alone; rising electricity bills are quickly becoming a hot-button issue all over the country. Power bills are spiking in other data center growth spots, including Ohio and Georgia. In Ohio, officials came up with a plan to alleviate the burden by designating data centers as a new type of utility customer \u2014 and mandating they pay more for the power and equipment.\n <\/p>\n \n Lapp is focused on trying to do something similar.\n <\/p>\n \n Utility companies told CNN they are aware of ballooning costs. An Exelon spokesperson said it is working with regional governors and a data center industry group to address the problem.\n <\/p>\n![\"Electrical](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gettyimages-2221113513.jpg\")
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