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Yes, data centers are increasing your electric bill. Here's how.

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Maureen Willis is the Ohio Consumers' Counsel and director of the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, the state's advocate for residential utility consumers. She has devoted more than 27 years to representing consumers in utility matters.

You conserve electricity. You turn off lights, adjust the thermostat and watch how often you run the air conditioner. Then the electric bill arrives — and it is still higher.

Why?

There is no single cause. Your bill pays for three different parts of the electric system: making electricity, moving it across the region and delivering it to your home. Costs are rising in all three. And the extraordinary growth of data centers is adding new pressure.

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) is the state agency that represents residential utility consumers before state and federal regulators. Our job is to press for reliable service at a reasonable price — and to keep families from paying costs that should be borne by others.

Here is what Ohioans should know.

First, electricity must be generated.
Generation is the power produced at natural-gas, nuclear, coal and renewable facilities. Ohio consumers may buy that electricity through their utility’s standard offer, a local government aggregation program or another supplier of their choice.

Generation prices reflect the balance between supply and demand. When demand grows while supply fails to keep pace, electricity prices rise.

Ohio is part of PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator serving all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. PJM runs a “capacity market,” which pays power plants to be available when electricity is needed most.

Data centers require staggering amounts of around-the-clock electricity. PJM’s independent market monitor concluded that data center growth has been the primary reason for recent tight supply conditions and high capacity prices. Its latest analysis estimated that existing and forecast data-center demand increased capacity-market costs by a combined $23.1 billion for the 2025/2026 through 2027/2028 delivery years.

Those are regional costs, not a line on your bill labeled “data centers.” But they ultimately flow through to consumers.

Second, electricity must be moved.
Transmission lines carry large amounts of power over long distances. When a huge new customer connects to the grid, new lines and other equipment may be needed.

That infrastructure can cost hundreds of millions — or even billions — of dollars. In northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” for example, PJM approved $1.2 billion in regional transmission upgrades associated with rapid data center growth. Some of those costs were spread among customers beyond the immediate area.

Ohio should learn from that experience. The principle should be simple: Customers that cause new costs should pay those costs. For data centers, a fair share should mean the full share.

Third, electricity must reach your home.
Distribution is the neighborhood system of poles, wires, substations and other equipment that delivers electricity to homes and businesses. In much of the Akron-Canton area, Ohio Edison, a FirstEnergy company, owns that system.

Unlike electricity generation, distribution service is a regulated monopoly.

FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities recently asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to approve three years of distribution rate increases beginning in 2027. For an Ohio Edison household using 1,000 kilowatt-hours monthly, the proposal would increase the average bill by about $4.26 each month in the first year and $12.78 per month by the third year.

Those increases are not automatic. FirstEnergy must prove that its request is justified. OCC is reviewing the evidence and will advocate for consumers throughout the case. Consumers may also submit comments to the PUCO.

OCC also supports special tariffs requiring data centers to make firm, long-term financial commitments before utilities build expensive facilities to serve them. In 2025, the PUCO approved such a tariff for AEP Ohio, the electric distribution utility serving much of central, eastern and southeastern Ohio. The tariff includes minimum payment and contract requirements intended to protect other consumers if projected data center demand does not materialize.

Similar protections should apply wherever large new loads create risks for consumers.

Economic development can benefit Ohio. But economic development should not mean shifting private business costs onto families, seniors and small businesses.

Electricity is essential. Ohioans should pay the reasonable cost of safe, reliable service — no more.

At OCC, we will keep pressing regulators, utilities and regional grid planners to make sure the biggest new users do not leave residential consumers holding the bill.

You can learn more about how to read your electric bill, comment on a rate case, compare generation offers and find payment assistance at occ.ohio.gov.

 

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Maureen Willis
Ohio Consumers’ Counsel 

 

This article also appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sept. 1, 2026 at https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2026/09/01/ohio-electric-rates-going-up-data-centers-opinion/91479707007/