Data Center Power Guzzling Alert!

Like many Pennsylvanians, you’ve likely had higher energy bills in recent months. PPL, the electric utility company, is now trying to raise residential customer rates even more while lowering bills for data centers. If you are a PPL customer, you have important opportunities in the coming weeks to make your voice heard. In late September, PPL requested a rate increase of $356.3 million from the PUC. If this rate case goes through, the average residential PPL customer currently paying $177 a month for electricity could expect to pay $11 (7%) more each month. At the same time, PPL is proposing to lower rates for its large electric customers, like AI data centers. The PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) is holding a series of in-person public input hearings.

2025 PPL Rate Increase Resource In Person Hearing

Thursday, December 18 – 6pm

Wilkes University

Henry Student Center

Jean and Paul Adams Commons (JPAC Room), 2nd Floor

84 West South Street

Wilkes Barre, PA 18766

Telephonic Hearings

Monday, December 15

1 pm and 6 pm

Pre-register by December 11 at 4 PM ET.

Call or email Pamela McNeal: 215-560-4228 or pmcneal@pa.gov

To participate in the Telephonic Public Input Hearing:

Toll-free Conference Number: 866-421-8851

PIN Number: 66640466

You must dial the toll-free Conference number above

You must enter the PIN number above when instructed

You must speak your name when prompted, and press #

Please feel free to use the guide below to craft your comment. Focus on telling your personal story and how the proposed rate increase will affect you. An overview of the case and the public hearings is available on the Public Utility Commission’s website. Please email Alice (alu@cleanair.org) if you have any questions.

Background

In late September, PPL requested a rate increase of $356.3 million from the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). If this rate case goes through, the average residential PPL customer currently paying $177 a month for electricity could expect to pay $11 (7%) more each month. At the same time, PPL is proposing to lower rates for its large electric customers, like AI data centers. The PUC is now holding a series of public hearings as they investigate this proposal. Most of Pennsylvania’s data center growth is already happening in the PPL service territory. AI data center growth is the primary cause for higher electricity prices in recent months: data centers use a lot of energy and create an unprecedented demand for electricity that our current grid is not equipped to supply. According to the Electric Power Research Institute, AI data centers could consume up to 9% of all electricity in the United States by 2030. As a result, electricity prices for regular ratepayers in Pennsylvania — and in many other states — have and will continue to skyrocket.

Personalize and craft your public comment

Your testimony should tell the PUC how PPL’s proposed rate increase will affect you and others you care about, and state what you want the PUC to do about it. Lean into your story and share about your experiences — stories can make abstract issues feel more real and impactful to others. Feel free to include facts and details. Introduce yourself. Identify that you are a PPL customer, and share how you may already be impacted by increasing electricity costs. For example, how much have your electricity rates already gone up in recent months? What has this meant for your household? Tell your story. Why now? In your own words, share why this is an important moment to speak up.The PPL rate case will not only increase costs for its electric customers, but it will also be the first utility rate case to deal with the question of how large, AI data centers should be considered as a customer. Identify the problem. What impact will this rate increase have? For example, how will it affect your household? How might it affect other customers who are already struggling to pay their bills. State the solution and make the ask. The PUC has the authority to protect customers from unfair rate changes, like the one proposed by PPL. The PUC could reject the rate increase altogether, or require PUC to make significant changes to their proposal that would better protect residential customers.