Michigan utility customers may pay $6.4bn for two new gas plants to meet datacenter demand, drawing outrage from residents.<\/p>\n
The potential burden on ratepayers, especially residential customers, is a microcosm of similar tensions nationwide, highlighting how the utility industry benefits from unchecked datacenter growth.<\/p>\n
The proliferation of energy-hungry datacenters in the state of Michigan is driving a DTE Energy proposal to double its electric grid capacity over the next 20 years. DTE is Michigan\u2019s largest energy provider, and among the nation\u2019s biggest utilities. It has asked regulators to approve a long-term energy delivery plan that includes developing a combined 2.1 gigawatts of gas plants in 2031 and 2032, in counties just outside metro Detroit.<\/p>\n
The company has already contracted with Google and Oracle to provide a combined 2.4 gigawatts of electricity to hyperscale datacenters \u2013 enough to power more than 1.8m homes. It is also poised to announce<\/a> two more hyperscale contracts, and a potential total of roughly 6 gigawatts\u2019 worth of datacenters could be contracted by the year\u2019s end. If all came to fruition, DTE could need more than two gas plants.<\/p>\n A DTE Energy power plant in Monroe, Michigan, on 30 June 2014. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n About 2.3 million electric customers in south-east Michigan could be affected. Any plan to saddle residential customers with datacenter costs was \u201cdeeply unjust\u201d, said Yousef Rabhi, a public power advocate and former state representative who in August won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who are struggling to feed their kids, to put diapers on their babies, to keep the lights on \u2013 those people are going to be subsidizing the wealthiest people on the planet to help them make more money, and that is insanity,\u201d Rabhi continued.<\/p>\n The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which regulates the state\u2019s private utilities, has drawn fire<\/a> over its previous decisions about whether residential customers should effectively subsidize datacenters. The commission\u2019s leadership is filled with appointees<\/a> of Michigan\u2019s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, a pro-business, big tech ally who has seen her popularity in the state fall<\/a> in part over her support for datacenters, which are unpopular<\/a>.<\/p>\n