数据中心已使公共电费上涨了 230 亿美元。想把这笔钱要回来可没那么容易。
西奥多·J·库里
西奥多·J·库里
与
《对话》杂志
《对话》杂志
西奥多·J·库里
西奥多·J·库里
与
《对话》杂志
《对话》杂志
2026 年 7 月 14 日，美国东部时间凌晨 2:45
2026 年 7 月 8 日，加利福尼亚州弗农市，一座在建的 49.5 兆瓦三层数据中心前竖立着“数字经济关键基础设施”的标牌。对人工智能基础设施需求的激增，正在推动美国和全球各地数据中心的建设热潮。
马里奥·塔马/盖蒂图片社
许多大型科技公司已承诺，将为发电和输电以满足大型数据中心需求所产生的相关成本支付其应承担的份额。但全美的电力用户都在担心自己可能不得不承担的成本。这是因为数据中心能源成本的计算方式尚不明确。价格上涨的影响可能才刚刚开始显现，其全部影响或许要数年之后才能被感受到。
例如，负责监管 PJM 市场（覆盖中大西洋和中西部 14 个州的全部或部分地区）的组织最近发布的一份报告指出，数据中心预期的电力需求是导致用户电价上涨 230 亿美元的主要原因，这一涨幅将至少持续到 2028 年底。
我研究了各州为满足这些大型电力用户需求而启动的项目。电价由各州公用事业委员会制定，由它们决定哪些用户的费率将上涨多少，以支付电力基础设施的新投资。这并不简单。
变电站和其他输电设备总得有人买单——但该由谁来买单，又该付多少钱呢？
乔·雷德尔/盖蒂图片社
定价的复杂性
从原则上讲，为电力定价很简单，但实际操作却很复杂。监管机构需要确定提供服务的成本，将这些成本分摊给用户，并设计出能够回收这些成本的定价方案。
首先，监管机构会确定一家公用事业公司为提供服务所承担的成本。监管机构会审视该公用事业公司投资的资产价值，例如发电厂、输电线路和变电站，以及其日常运营开支，如员工薪酬、燃料、更换部件和从其他来源购买的电力。然后，这些成本会被分配给不同类别的客户，例如居民用户、商业用户和工业用户。
理想情况下，成本应分配给导致这些成本产生的客户，但这可能很难确定。例如，假设一个数据中心建在缺乏现有输电线路的区域，且距离附近的变电站仅50码。显然，数据中心应承担从变电站到数据中心这50码输电线路的建设费用。
但如果电力公司需要升级变电站以满足数据中心增长的需求呢？或者需要确保额外的电力来源？在这些情况下，这些投资是所有人共用的电网的一部分。这些成本很可能将由所有客户共同分担。
成本分析师会审查公用事业公司成本明细中的每一项，通常涉及数千个项目，并确定每项成本将如何分配。每个决策都基于一个基本理念：你的份额是多少？
例如，如果一组客户使用了该公用事业公司输送电力的20%，那么他们将被分配与电力输送相关的20%的成本。其他成本项目可能根据客户数量或客户在特定时间点的用电量来分配，但核心理念是相同的。
最后，分析师会设定价格，旨在收回分配给每个客户群体的成本。因此，分配给你的成本会直接反映在你所支付的电价中。
灵活性与潜在漏洞
确定客户应支付多少费用的一个常见标准，是基于所谓的“同时峰值需求”——即当所有客户共同消耗最大电量时，某个客户群体所使用的电量。与整体峰值用电相关的成本通常按比例分摊——但这为数据中心利用该体系提供了机会。
数据中心通常能够精细调整其电力消耗，在一分钟多用、下一分钟少用，而住宅用户很难轻易做到这一点。计算机化系统可以自动调整数据中心的工作量，而房主则要么得匆忙关掉电器来显著减少家庭用电量，要么投资购买能自动调节的设备。
它们的灵活性意味着，数据中心或许能够学会预测系统负荷何时达到峰值，并在恰好合适的时间段内消耗极少甚至不消耗电力，从而避免对峰值负荷做出贡献，正如德克萨斯州的加密货币挖矿业务所发生的情况那样。因此，当监管机构根据它们的用电量来定价时，数据中心可能能够避免支付任何通过同时峰值需求分摊的成本，即使它们在其它时间消耗了大量电力。
电力监管机构决定运营电网的成本应为多少。
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto 通过 Getty Images
谁为你发声？
当公用事业监管机构决定如何将成本分配给每个客户群体时，他们会征求不同群体的意见。公用事业公司首先会提交自己的提案，说明他们认为成本应如何在其系统内分配。
代表工厂等客户的大型工业客户群体也会提交他们关于如何分配成本和制定费率的提案。代表大小商店的零售客户群体也会提交他们的提案。而拥有资源聘请成本分配专家的大型数据中心，同样会提交自己的提案。一些州设有专门的州政府机构，代表特定商业群体从事部分此类工作，例如宾夕法尼亚州的小企业倡导办公室。
不过，监管机构并不总能充分了解居民用户的诉求。除佐治亚、爱达荷和路易斯安那三州外，美国各州均设有消费者权益保护办公室，在州公用事业监管机构的听证程序中代表消费者利益。但这些办公室通常被要求无偏袒地代表全州所有消费者，这意味着它们不能主张将成本转嫁给某一类消费者群体而使另一群体受益的结果。
因此，尽管各州的消费者权益保护机构都致力于尽可能降低公用事业成本，但法律可能禁止它们就成本应如何分摊表明立场。在普通家庭电费定价的这一环节中，由于缺乏代表，可能导致数据中心倡导者主张将最低成本分摊给自身——却无人代表居民去审视或反驳这一主张。
示威者呼吁内华达州公用事业委员会在电价听证程序中保护消费者权益。
Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for People's Action
市民最终承担损失
居民用户还面临其他风险。公用事业公司对电力基础设施的投资往往持续多年。但并非所有拟建的数据中心都会建成，有些数据中心实际耗电量可能低于最初预期。技术甚至可能发生变化，导致某些数据中心运营一两年后就遭淘汰。
如果出现这些情况，那么公用事业公司为提供充足电力所付出的任何成本，都将由所有其他用户共同分摊。
对于由市议会或独立董事会监管的市政公用事业公司，或由农村社区民选董事会监管的合作制公用事业公司而言，成本分摊过程可能更为复杂。这些机构可能没有全职的公用事业或监管专家，却面临着与受过专业培训的人员相同的决策挑战，可能不得不聘请外部专家协助处理相关事务。
消费者需要认识到成本分摊的重要性，以及它如何影响他们的电价。我认为他们应该向监管机构提交公众意见，并在公开听证会上发言，因为可能没有其他人能有效地为他们的利益发声。
西奥多·J·库里，佛罗里达大学能源研究主任
本文根据知识共享许可协议从《对话》转载。阅读原文。
关于作者
西奥多·J·库里
《对话》
Data centers have already hiked electricity prices on the public by $23 billion. Good luck clawing that back
Theodore J. Kury
Theodore J. Kury
and
The Conversation
The Conversation
Theodore J. Kury
Theodore J. Kury
and
The Conversation
The Conversation
July 14, 2026, 2:45 AM ET
An "Essential Infrastructure For The Digital Economy" sign is posted in front of a 49.5 megawatt three-level data center under construction on July 8, 2026 in Vernon, California. A surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is fueling a boom in data centers across the country and around the globe.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Many major tech companies have pledged to pay their fair share of the costs associated with generating and transmitting more electricity to serve large data centers. But ratepayers across the United States are worried about the potential costs they might have to bear. That’s because it’s not immediately clear how the cost of data centers’ energy will be calculated. The effects of price increases are likely just beginning, and their full effects may not be felt for years.
For example, a recent report by the organization that monitors the PJM market, an area that encompasses all or part of 14 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, concluded that expected power demand from data centers was a primary reason for $23 billion in customer price increases that will last until at least the end of 2028.
I have studied the programs states have launched to address the needs of these large electricity customers. Prices are set by state utility commissions, who determine which customers’ rates will increase by how much to pay for new investments in electricity infrastructure. It’s not simple.
Someone has to pay for substations and other electricity transmission equipment – but who, and how much?
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The complexity of setting prices
Setting a price for electricity is straightforward in principle but complicated in execution. Regulators identify the costs to provide service, allocate the costs to customers and design prices to recover those costs.
First, regulators identify the costs that a utility company incurs to provide service. Regulators look at the value of the assets the utility company invests in, such as power plants, transmission lines and substations, as well as its day-to-day operating expenses, such as salaries, fuel, replacement parts and electricity it purchases from other sources. Then these costs are allocated to categories of customers, such as residential, commercial and industrial.
Ideally, costs are allocated to the customers who cause them, but that can be complicated to determine. For example, imagine a data center is built in an area that lacks existing power lines and is located 50 yards from a nearby electric substation. It’s clear that the data center should pay to run a 50-yard power line from the substation to the data center.
But what if the power company needs to upgrade the substation to handle the increased needs of the data center? Or secure additional sources of electricity? In these cases, the investments are part of the electricity grid that everyone uses. These costs will likely be shared among all customers.
Cost analysts review each line of a utility company’s costs, often thousands of items, and determine how each cost will be allocated. Each decision incorporates one basic idea: What’s your share?
For instance, if a group of customers uses 20% of the electricity delivered by the utility, they would be allocated 20% of the costs associated with energy delivery. Other cost items may be allocated based on the number of customers or how much electricity customers use at particular points in time, but the idea is the same.
Finally, the analysts set prices that are designed to recover the costs allocated to each customer group. So, the costs that are allocated to you are directly reflected in the electricity prices that you pay.
Flexibility and a potential loophole
One common criterion for figuring out how much a customer should pay is based on what is called “coincident peak demand” – the amount a customer group uses at the moment when all customers are collectively using the largest amount of electricity. Costs associated with overall peak usage are typically split proportionally – but this opens an opportunity for data centers to exploit the system.
Data centers often are able to fine-tune their electricity consumption, using more one minute and less another, in ways that residential users can’t easily replicate. Computerized systems can automatically adjust the amount of work a data center is doing, while a homeowner would either have to race around shutting off appliances to meaningfully reduce the amount of power their home was using or invest in a device that does.
Their flexibility means data centers may be able to learn to predict when system loads will peak and consume little to no power in just the right period to avoid contributing to peak loads, as has happened with cryptocurrency-mining operations in Texas. So when regulators look at their usage to determine prices, data centers may be able to avoid paying any costs allocated through coincident peak demand, even if they use large amounts of electricity at other times.
Electricity regulators determine how much it should cost to operate the grid.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Who speaks for you?
When utility regulators decide how costs should be allocated to each customer group, they solicit input from different groups. The utility company initially submits its own proposal for how it thinks costs should be allocated across its system.
Large industrial customer groups representing customers such as factories will also submit their own proposals for how to allocate costs and set rates. Retail customer groups representing large and small stores will submit theirs. And large data centers, with the resources to hire experts in cost allocation, will submit theirs as well. Some states have specific state-government agencies to do some of this work on behalf of particular commercial groups, such as Pennsylvania’s Office of Small Business Advocate.
Regulators don’t always get a good sense of residential customers’ voices, though. Every state except Georgia, Idaho and Louisiana has an office of the consumer advocate that represents customer interests in proceedings before the state utility regulator. But they are often charged with representing all customers in the state without bias, meaning they cannot advocate for outcomes that would impose costs on one group of customers in favor of another.
So while every state’s consumer advocate is concerned with keeping the utility’s costs as low as possible, they may be barred by law from adopting a position on how those costs should be allocated. This lack of representation in this aspect of rate-setting for average households may lead to situations where the data centers’ advocates argue for minimal costs to be allocated to them – but nobody advocates on behalf of residents to examine or refute that argument.
Demonstrators call on the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to protect consumers’ rights in electricity rate proceedings.
Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for People’s Action
Citizens left holding the bag
There are other risks for residential customers, too. Utilities’ investments in electricity infrastructure last for many years. But not every proposed data center will get built, and some may use less energy than originally projected. Technology may even change, making some data centers obsolete after a year or two of operations.
If those events happen, then any costs the utility company incurred to provide enough electricity will be spread among all the other customers.
The allocation process may be even more complicated for municipal utilities regulated by city councils or independent boards, or cooperative utilities regulated by elected boards in rural communities. These groups may not have full-time staff who are utility or regulatory experts, yet they face the same decision-making challenges as trained professionals and might have to retain outside experts to aid in the process.
Consumers need to be aware of the importance of cost allocation and how it affects their electricity rates. I believe they should provide public comments to the regulators and speak during open hearings, as there may not be anyone else effectively advocating for their interests.
Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Theodore J. Kury
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