PA Environment Digest Blog: What The A.I. Data Center & Energy Summit Missed: Exploding Electricity Demand Already Raising Prices - Ratepayers Need Protection; No Longer An ‘All Of The Above’ Energy Strategy

On July 22, a panel of energy experts gathered to provide a consumer-first, clean energy perspective following the A.I. Data Center and Energy Summit held at Carnegie Mellon University on July 15.

Speakers highlighted the Summit's failure to focus on clean renewable energy-- an essential part of the solution to meet rising electric grid demand and costs generated by A.I. and data centers.

There was also no mention of the impact on consumer electric bills.

Here are the remarks of Jeaneen Zappa, Executive Director of the Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance, commenting on the need to protect ratepayers, the abandonment of an “all of the above” energy strategy and real consideration of demand response and energy efficiency.

We're all aware that the artificial intelligence revolution presents challenges and opportunities for the Pittsburgh area where I live and Pennsylvania and the entire country.

And one of the biggest challenges is that these data centers that support A.I. are exploding the demand for power.

The industry publication Utility Dive has reported projections of increases of up to five times the amount of power demand [growth]. [Read more here.]

PJM, the regional transmission operator for our region that provides electricity and is responsible for stability of the grid. [Read more here.]

They have expressed concern and projected significant demand increase because of the A.I. revolution, and the entire industry is grappling with this right now.

And our own Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission held a special en banc hearing. That means the entire bench of commissioners was there in April specific to large electrical loads and how to handle that and then also how to pay for that. [Read more here.]

Risks To Consumers

I think it's important for you all to be aware of the risks to consumers.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't have these, but I think there are plenty of cautions because there is not what's known as a tariff, i.e., a price tag for how this stuff is charged.

And these loads are not just bigger, they are exponentially bigger, 10 times that of any manufacturer in the state.

I will provide you with a link to the docket from that hearing.

You can look at the testimony from the major data centers themselves recommending that they would have co-located load generation, that there should be guide rails and safety rails to protect consumers so that, as we have to build out this infrastructure to support this increased amount of electricity that is needed to support these businesses, that the rest of the consumers wouldn't have to support that cost. [Read more here.]

Electricity Prices Already Up

And I think that's a really critical thing to be aware of and why that matters a lot is that prices are already going up.

In the PJM territory, which covers 14 states, even though the name is Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland, prices went up last year in their auction, which then is passed on to utilities as a part of all of our bills. [Read more here.]

And so, consumers starting June one and even sooner than that, were seeing increases of 20% in the residential class, 30% in the business class, and even higher in certain portions of the PJM territory.

That's actually going to increase and there's no end in sight.

So adding more demand on the electrical system only puts increasing pressure.

I should just say this too, some people project the prices will go up 70% in electric bills by 2029 due to that increased demand from data centers and A.I., 70%.

That's a significant figure and we have already been seeing bumps, as I noted.

So that means we really need every bit of energy that we can generate.

Delays In Connecting New Generation

And it is interesting and unfortunate that in PJM, they have been plagued with not only these price increases, but a history of having a significant delay in advancing clean energy projects or, for that matter, any projects through their queue of generation that is looking to be developed, power generation.

And 80% of the projects that have sat for two to three years in the queue before they're approved are renewable energy.

We need that renewable energy, and more now than ever.

Absence Of ‘All Of The Above’ Strategy

The Summit had a glaring absence considering the companion to the kind of generation that was supported there, but we need all of it.

And we talk all the time about being an “all of the above” state and an “all of the above” country, and yet we don't see a true all of the above reflection in the kind of development that is being supported.

I'll also note that more than $1 trillion by my account of investment was slated for Western Pennsylvania alone and more than $4 trillion for the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the federal tax credits, primarily for solar photovoltaic and also for hydroelectric in this region.

And now significant portions of that are in jeopardy because of the [new] constraints that have been put in place [by Congress and the President].

So we're excited to see additional investment in the region, but it is heartbreaking to see this additional $1 trillion of investment that should be producing energy, clean energy, be forsaken or at least jeopardized.

Natural Gas Reliability Questioned

I mentioned PJM before seeing a significant price increase. I will flag that that is primarily due to two issues.

One is the queue that I mentioned before, so not advancing solar photovoltaic primarily but wind and other renewables.

And secondly, and the bigger reason that prices went up in PJM, is that PJM itself realized that natural gas plants were far less reliable than it had previously ranked them.

So they de-rated [them], is what the procedure is called-- they counted them at a lesser reliability. [Read more here.]

We all know that in winter storm Elliott, that the natural gas plants were not able to come online and produce energy in the way that was needed in Texas, and that a strategy called demand response was one of the critical things that made a difference in ensuring that some power was available. [Read more here.]

Demand Response Is Critical

And here in our own territory, demand response has been also critical when there are peak incidences of demand.

And demand response typically relies on distributed energy generation, highly tied to renewables, meaning you tell me you need me to use less, I'm going to use less because I am able to adjust that load.

That's a key strategy that we need to be pursuing and developing.

Big Impacts, Without Significant Job Gains

All of this investment in an effort to attract data centers ... Joanne [Kilgour, Executive Director of the Ohio River Valley Institute] will talk about this, but I just want to note there's some pretty significant environmental impact that is of concern in the use of water, land resources and without a significant number of jobs.

Most of the data centers, once they're up and running, really are not employers of a large number of people.

Our industry energy efficiency employs more than 70,000 people in the state.

All of these additional power generation projects in the renewable sector would also have employed additional people in the state.

So I think that it's important for us to carefully evaluate what we are seeing and we can't ignore renewables and efficiency as significant parts of the solution, and we don't want to eliminate the support in the way that we have done.

I think those are really the key things that I would like to convey today.

Again, prices are already going up.

We need all of the energy that we've got.

We want to put protective guard rails in place [for ratepayers].

I should note, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission also held last November a special hearing on resource capacity because having enough resources and then how to charge and plan for data centers with the more recent hearing are two critical challenges facing our grid, and we need to really make significant investment to ensure that we've got that. [Read more here.]

Click Here for a video of the full briefing.

What The Energy Summit Missed:

-- What The A.I. Data Center & Energy Summit Missed: Exploding Electricity Demand Already Raising Prices - Ratepayers Need Protection; No Longer An ‘All Of The Above’ Energy Strategy [PaEN]

-- What The A.I. Data Center & Energy Summit Missed: It’s Deja Vu - False Promises, Dirty Power - Our People And Communities Deserve Respect [PaEN]

Resource Links: PA Energy & A.I. Summit

-- List Of More Than $90 Billion In Energy, A.I. Data Center Investments, Commitments Or Plans Announced At The PA Energy & Innovation Summit [PaEN]

-- NewsClips - PA Energy & A.I. Summit Pittsburgh July 15, 2025

-- PA Republican Lawmakers Rush To Introduce Bills To Give New Tax Breaks, Waive Regulations, Environmental Standards For A.I. Data Centers Already Flocking Into Pennsylvania And Locking Up PA Power [PaEN]

-- EPA Is 'Clearing The Regulatory Path For America To Dominate The Global A.I. Revolution' [PaEN]

-- Kleinman Center For Energy Policy: What Wasn’t Discussed At Pennsylvania’s Energy & A.I. Summit - By John Quigley, Senior Fellow

-- Rise Of The Machines: Senate, House Members Express Concern That Demand For Power To Run Computers Is Impacting The Price And Availability Of Electricity For ‘Ordinary People’ [5.12.25]

-- Pennsylvania’s Electric Grid Is Dependent On One Fuel To Generate 59% Of Our Electricity; Market Moving To Renewables + Storage [PaEN]