Boom or bust: How to protect ratepayers from the AI bubble | 국외연구자료

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Economic Information and Education Center

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Boom or bust: How to protect ratepayers from the AI bubble

Brookings

2025.10.31

Electricity rates across the country have increased 30% since 2020 and are rising at twice the rate of inflation, particularly in areas where large data centers are operating and under construction. In Virginia, a hub for data center development, Dominion Energy has petitioned the state utility commission to raise base rates by 15% over the next two years, and a company spokesman projected that the average residential utility bill will increase by 50% by 2039 due to new data center openings. In Columbus, Ohio, the average residential rate is set to increase by $27 per month, and the Chicago Sun Times reported on July 22 that Commonwealth Edison is raising rates by 11% this year. According to Bloomberg news, “wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.”

Soaring electricity prices is only one problem. The public is becoming increasingly aware of the other downsides of the huge data centers required to provide artificial intelligence (AI) services, including water consumption, noise pollution, lack of long-term job creation, and use of polluting fossil fuel generating plants. This piece focuses, however, on policy measures needed to meet the rising demand for AI energy while protecting ordinary ratepayers from paying the extra costs associated with AI data centers.

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