Enviros, Utilities, and Tech Bros Walk Into a Data Center

Source: Politico  |  By Camille Von Kanel & Tyler Katzenberger

Democrats in Sacramento are taking cues from lawmakers in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia as they explore special electricity rates for data centers aimed at controlling costs for other customers. But for ratepayer and environmental advocates, it could go either way: Data centers could, if managed properly, bring down the per-customer grid costs that have been dominating the political conversation for months — or they could leave ratepayers with costly stranded assets and even outpace the growth of renewable energy on the grid.

“Will [data centers] use clean generation and battery storage?” Matt Freedman, a staff attorney at The Utility Reform Network, asked at a Senate hearing in April. “The requirements established by the Legislature will largely determine what type of on-site generation is used by these data centers.”