There’s a growing narrative that data centers are driving rising electricity costs. While this can be a compelling narrative, it is simply not what the facts show.
The data tells a much different story: an independent review found no evidence that data centers are driving increases in residential electricity costs under current rate structures. In fact, we are seeing the opposite. States with strong data center growth, including Texas and Virginia, have experienced modest rate increases. States with less data center delivery, such as California and New York have seen higher prices even as demand has declined.
Rising electricity costs across many regions are real and impacting many households. Those costs are being driven by a broad set of factors, including: inflation, grid modernization, fuel volatility, resilience investments, and market design.
Our country’s electrical grid is in need of modernization. Utilities recognize this need, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to seek out data centers to cover large portions of those costs. For example, our partner Alliant Energy has leveraged data center demand to keep Iowa’s electricity rates below the national average, supported by a resilient grid and regulatory structure that allows for growth while keeping rates flat over the next five years.
Recognition that our grid needed to be rebuilt began well before the data center boom. To truly understand rising costs, one must have a conversation about the whole system, not a single industry.
There’s a broader challenge at play. We’re asking more of the grid than it was originally designed to handle. Electrification, industrial reshoring, and digital growth are all happening at once.
In simple terms: more things are running on electricity, more manufacturing is happening here in the U.S., and the digital economy is accelerating rapidly. Managing that kind of growth responsibly requires coordination across utilities, regulators, and large energy users.
We also need to broaden how we think about power itself. It’s not about a single source. It’s about how different technologies – generation, storage, and infrastructure – work together to support what the system is becoming.
At QTS, we focus on:
- Partnering early with utilities and communities and paying the energy costs of our projects so they don’t increase local utility bills
- Aligning projects with long-term local priorities, including job creation, tax revenue and funding local programs
- Building trust through openness and transparency
At QTS we recognize that households are facing real challenges with rising costs; therefore, in the communities in which QTS operates, we are not only “paying our own way”, we are working to ensure the communities we operate in are better off because of QTS.
