Washington, DC – A new paper released today by Consumer Reports and Telemark Energy Consulting outlines what it truly means for AI data centers to “pay their own way” and provides tools to help advocates, regulators, and policymakers evaluate individual projects.
The paper takes a deep dive into the various ways that large data center projects can impose or shift costs and risks on to regular residential ratepayers. It identified a total of a dozen different, direct, indirect, and risk based mechanisms that could increase costs for other grid users now or in the future.
Data Center Cost-Impacting Mechanisms
Chris Harto, manager for sustainability advocacy at Consumer Reports said, “Even if data center projects pay for all the direct infrastructure costs for new transmission and generation, or even build their own generation on site, these projects can still impose costs on other ratepayers through indirect or risk based mechanisms. Regulators and legislators must account for all of these potential cost drivers when developing policies to ensure that large data center projects don’t leave hardworking Americans footing the bill.”
The report also lays out a framework for evaluating the potential cost impacts from individual data center projects and defines what “paying their own way” should look like in six key areas outlined below:
- Power Generation: Data center customers cover the full cost of dependable energy and capacity to serve their demand, without increasing costs or reducing reliability for existing customers. Projects should also make efficient use of existing resources and strengthen the broader power system.
- Transmission Infrastructure: Data centers pay for the local and regional grid upgrades they trigger, while maximizing available capacity through efficient siting and support for advanced grid technologies.
- Stranded Asset Protections: Binding contracts protect other customers if a project is delayed, is downsized, relocates, or closes. Financial commitments and credit support should match the scale and useful life of the investments made on the project’s behalf.
- Flexibility and Grid Integration: Data centers provide dependable demand flexibility that utilities can plan around—including reducing consumption during grid emergencies before residential service is disrupted.
- Clean Energy: Data centers procure new, regionally located clean energy that closely matches the amount and timing of their electricity demand, while supporting technologies that expand future clean-energy options that lock in long-term savings.
- Community Benefits: Host communities help shape legally enforceable agreements that provide recurring benefits proportionate to the project’s size and local impacts. Benefits complement strong electricity affordability protections.
“At a minimum, projects should leave existing customers unharmed. The higher standard, and the opportunity, is to leave them better off,” said Sara Enright, senior director of safety and sustainability at Consumer Reports. “Well-structured projects can improve use of existing infrastructure, strengthen reliability and resilience, accelerate valuable new technologies, support host communities, and reduce long-term cost pressures.”
Despite the potential for positive outcomes, Americans are concerned that data centers may drive up their electric bills. According to a November 2025 nationally representative CR survey of 2,146 US adults, 78 percent of Americans are at least somewhat concerned that new data centers could increase their household energy bills.
In response to this growing concern, a number of major artificial intelligence companies, data center builders, and utilities signed a pledge at the White House called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. The pledge stated that data center companies would pay the full cost of energy and infrastructure needed to supply their facilities “no matter what.” However, a May 2026 nationally representative CR survey of 2,082 US adults found that Americans are skeptical of these pledges, with only 4 percent of Americans “very confident” that these companies will follow through on that commitment.
“Trust in big tech and data center developers is very low right now,” said Harto. “Rebuilding trust will require radical transparency, enforceable commitments, and independent verification to ensure the costs of powering data centers are borne by the companies driving demand—not by hardworking American families already struggling with rising utility bills.”
This report is part of a broader initiative to address the energy affordability crisis, which is mobilizing consumers nationwide to advocate for fair utility policies as electricity costs continue to rise. Through petitions, consumer storytelling, research, and policy advocacy, CR is working to ensure that households—not just utilities and the technology industry—have a meaningful voice in decisions that determine who pays for America’s rapidly expanding electric grid.
CR looks forward to working with advocates, policymakers, utilities, and project developers to help ensure that the buildout of AI data centers does not contribute to rising consumer energy costs.
Contact: cyrus.rassool@consumer.org