Future data centers are driving up forecasts for energy demand. States want proof they’ll get built
David, I think you mentioned data centers in one of your answers. We, we’ve seen an explosion across the state. There was *** recent Marquette poll that showed 55% of Wisconsinites say the costs outweigh the benefits. 44% said the benefits outweigh the costs, and that was pretty evenly split along party lines. There’s really no. view on data centers yet maybe until you guys start talking about the little that that could that could potentially change. I’m curious though just your broad thoughts on data centers here in Wisconsin and what you see as as the state’s role in that. David, we’ll start with you. Well, our, our role is not to pick winners and losers but to make sure that this is. Fertile ground for for entrepreneurs and businesses to either stay or move right here to the state of Wisconsin. I, I do think that data centers play *** huge role and when you think about our, our traditional, uh, uh, uh, our traditional industries, right, manufacturing, you think about agriculture, you think about water technology and how we can actually fuse that. Uh, with the, uh, the next generation of technology we’re thinking about, you know, open data, AI and Fintech and things of that nature, uh, but we can do all these things while making sure that we not only protect our environment, uh, but we to protect people, we need to protect our, uh, our, our consumption as well and so I don’t think these things are necessarily mutually exclusive from one another. We can do all of these things at the exact same time, but I also think it’s important that. As we talk about, you know, companies who are, you know, $15 billion investment, how do we leverage that for community benefits across the entire state of Wisconsin? How does that help out our local units of government, our schools, our other local businesses, as well as those industries that I. That I previously mentioned and so I, I do think that there’s an opportunity for us to really become uh AI and *** data hub for not only for the entire country but for the entire globe and really sets us really apart and making sure that we can continue to invest in in businesses and companies here, Missy. What’s really interesting is that in the last 4 months or so I’ve visited *** number of different companies across Wisconsin that are really benefiting from the data center boom because they’re part of the supply chain we have companies like Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry that are providing um uh part of the skid that goes around the generator we’ve got companies like Train that are providing the HVAC systems for the data centers so it’s really *** whole supply chain that we’re. Seeing around the data centers and Wisconsin has an opportunity to continue to participate in that. I just recently heard that about 90% of the investment that we’re seeing in the country right now is coming out of AI and coming out of the building of those data centers, so we don’t wanna lose out on that, but I think we also, I think David was touching on this, we also need to recognize that our economy is incredibly diverse. We are not becoming *** data center economy in Wisconsin. And we have *** long way to go before that happens, but to have the opportunity to have some of these data centers land here in Wisconsin provide incredible, uh, property tax and revenue for the communities that are really determining how to how to pay their bills, how to build new schools, how to build new fire departments it’s an opportunity for those communities to access some of that investment and to benefit from it so it’s, you know, it is very important that when *** data center comes. Um, as we did at WEDC, we sit down with that company right away and we talk to them about their environmental needs, about where they’re, where they’re building and how to make that happen in *** way that has the least impact to the communities and the best benefit for Wisconsin and you know working directly with the companies and getting to know those companies acting with them as partners is critically important for these to be good investments and ultimately beneficial for Wisconsin. So this is near and dear to me in Washington County. I live on the east side of the county. I’m about 15 minutes away from the Newport, Washington project. Uh, I see an abundance of opportunity and an entire society that doesn’t quite know what it’s getting into at the moment. Um, I think being very, very strategic and smart about where these go, uh, is critically important and let me tell you *** few reasons why. Uh, the introduction of Microsoft in the last 5 to 10 years in Wisconsin, I think has been catalytic. Uh, UW Milwaukee is *** really good example of *** partnership that has been forged and is expanding as time goes on. Uh, having Oracle, uh, connected just down the road from my home is going to be humongous, and I think it’s gonna do *** lot for venture capital in the long term, um, but there’s other things, those things are wonderful, and we need to leverage them to the greatest extent possible. I think data centers and AI generally. Speaking are transformative to all of the globe, uh, but also to manufacturing in Wisconsin which is still, uh, the the harrowing call for all of our state, um, but one thing we need to be sensitive about, uh, and there’s several, but one in particular. And that is power, power distribution and power supply. We don’t have even remotely close to enough. The strategies that we’ve implemented over the last 10 to 15 years, uh, are *** joke and aren’t gonna work in the long haul at the rate and speed at which these data centers want to do their business and we want them to be successful. I’m *** giant advocate of doing data centers, but we’ve got to be smart about it and right now we don’t know enough to be smart about it, so I, I believe where this really provides opportunity for the state of Wisconsin. Is with power in the future and nuclear energy in particular. I grew up in middle school and high school in Kiwani. We’re 10 minutes from the Kiwani nuclear power plant. About half the people in my dad’s church had some connection to that power plant with family sustaining jobs, and it was an entire economy in and of itself and it powered *** massive part of Wisconsin that is now being decommissioned. Now we know all of the technology that has advanced in the last 10 years since the decision was made to decommission that plan, and there are leaps and bounds that we’ve made and we have to go yet in nuclear energy, not to mention UW Madison is one of the top universities in the world for nuclear engineering. We absolutely could have *** renaissance for Wisconsin to be the beacon of not just the Midwest but all of America in some ways the globe for nuclear energy which could completely propel us into *** new age of data centers if we do it smartly and wisely but don’t get, don’t get lost in, uh, being attracted to *** $15 billion project that’s really super exciting, especially for my friend Ted Nitski, the mayor of Port Washington. But there’s the devil’s in the details like all things, and we need to be very thoughtful and strategic. I think we need *** long term plan for how to do this and how to do it well. Folks have big feelings around AI data centers. I don’t know if people have been following Shirley Barons’ Instagram, but I’m glad that Missy mentioned the supply chains because there is *** lot of nuance to this, um, especially some of our middle of manufacturing and steel who have been hit with tariffs. these data centers are incredibly important to, um, uh, to their sales, but we’re hearing from communities who have. Large concerns around environmental impact as well as what’s going to happen to their utility bills, both water and electricity. But there’s been disinvestments, uh, especially in our rural communities, um, depopulation and the jobs that are going to come in, uh, do make *** big are, uh, are significant for smaller communities so I think that one of the big considerations here is that, uh, for the workers and jobs that are created from these AI data centers, let’s make sure that the. Housing that’s being built, uh, they’re gonna continue to the workers are going to stay in Wisconsin that we are mindful of the different, um, uh, that we have to uh make sure that the companies are being accountable, uh, held accountable and transparent, uh, when it comes to uh how those dollars are spent, um, and then again this, this goes back to quality of life for the communities. Are already there and the workers that may be coming they’re going to want to have investments in their community like good roads like uh and uh fully funding our public schools there uh and so there’s there’s nuance to this and *** lot of considerations uh but I think what is most important is is to center the workers and communities where uh who are gonna be most impacted by those data centers being built there. So I’m gonna reiterate some of the things that were were said earlier um I agree that this is something that could have an enormous impact on our economy could have an enormous impact um moving us forward with some of the technology businesses that we have here uh I do wanna talk *** little bit about um energy usage of the data centers because it has been brought up here before. And I think there’s an opportunity for us to do both if communities want to have those data centers there that fits their community, making sure that those energy costs are not borne by the taxpayer that we also ask some of these businesses to invest in renewable. Energies to invest to make sure that those increases are not um being borne by by the community itself and then if you look at some of the environmental effects with the water um that these data centers use making sure we have those discussions up front. And that if they’re going to be using what is an enormously valuable resource in the state of Wisconsin and not only for fishing and tourism and but it’s makes us one of the best places to live um that we cannot be having issues with our ecosystem because um water is being put back into our lakes or in. Our streams that is too warm to be able to sustain what we need as our ecosystem so those are nuanced conversations to be able to have um but it’s not ***, it’s not *** yes or no it’s not *** picking winner winners or losers we need to work with the community themselves and put some of those, um, um, discussions up front about energy usage and water usage. AI will and already is transforming every aspect of our society and of our economy. Um, and you know data centers are coming whether people like it or not, so I think the question for policy makers is, um, can we implement *** strategic plan, an approach that respects the values that I think all of us share of democracy and shared decision making that’s transparent, that’s accountable, um, of fair play, everybody paying their fair share. Um, and of protecting all of our resources whether that’s labor, whether that’s environmental water, um, and what we have seen is troubling to me which is the biggest and wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world. Some of the companies that have been at the forefront of breaking our democracy and frankly rigging our economy are coming into small communities and forcing their way without the normal procedures that I think any of us would expect. I think local communities deserve to have *** say in what happens to them, um, and I definitely think that ratepayers are being asked to foot an unknown bill for the when these data centers come in we don’t really know what the impact is gonna be, but we can certainly look around the country and see what it has been we’ve got an aging really out of date electrical grid and infrastructure, and we’re all connected so *** data center in Port Washington could definitely affect rate payers here in Madison. And we have an opportunity to um. Come up with *** strategy to use the time value of money. Getting *** data center online in *** year versus in 4 years will create tremendous wealth for the company that owns it. Let’s use that time value of money to make sure that these data centers are being located in places where the communities. Want them and welcome them and where it’s appropriate for them and that we are not gonna be on the hook. Let’s extract money to make sure that we can use that to modernize our electrical grid and pay for some of the critical infrastructure upgrades that we need in our energy infrastructure you know Wisconsin cannot meet the demand with just sustainable energy. We, we’ve got to figure out *** way to make sure that um all of us who are rate payers and have been paying extremely high utility bills that have gone. Crazy up over the last several years um do not face continually punishing costs because of data centers. If you were governor right now, would anyone up here would you have actively stepped in to try to stop any of the data center developments currently underway? I’m not sure um I’ll I’ll start. I don’t know that I would um actively stop *** data center that is that the community is welcoming and wants in their community, but I agree with Senator Royce that we have to make sure that we are having those conversations with the community and that. We have some of these conversations up front before the data data centers come in to talk about what they’re going to be investing in the state of Wisconsin so that we do not have these expenses borne by our taxpayers so having *** broader conversation is something that I think we we should be having right now. I would even add to that that we we also have to combat the misinformation and disinformation that is out there. I think there are also valid concerns that people have when they’re hearing about data centers moving into their community, but it’s also about what are we doing proactively to make sure, uh. That that this isn’t born that that rate pay the rate payers uh the cost isn’t increasing on them, right? How can we work with data centers to prepay for their energy, prepay for the equipment that is used to actually put in *** solid electrical grid so everybody can actually benefit from these things and. You know, and I know about the water consumption, but we also live in Wisconsin, right? And so every time we wanna cool some off, what we do, we open *** window, not saying every research what we would do with data centers and things of that nature, but there’s, it, it’s, there’s ***, this is *** nuanced conversation that we have to make sure that we’re actually getting out in front because these things can move really fast, making sure that the entire public understands what is actually coming into our communities. Anyone else I’m putting on the brakes? I guess I would just I would jump in to say that *** lot of these conversations are happening. The companies are at the table. The state of Wisconsin is at the table having these conversations and we’re making sure that we’re thinking through all the different steps there are um efforts being made by the companies to build sustainable energy and so by being at the table right at the beginning. You can have those conversations and I think Caledonia is *** great example of *** community that took *** hard look at this and then said we don’t wanna do this and Microsoft said OK we’re out no problem we’re gonna go find *** community that’s excited about this that’s exactly what we want to have happen we want the locals engaged we want the the state engaged we want the company engaged we want everybody at the table and I just would say that that that is happening. It needs to continue. We need to stay and we need to have leaders who are able to be at those conversations and have the the real in depth, as everyone has said, nuanced conversations, not to stop but to figure out how do we make this the best for the state and for the communities where these data centers are landing on the flip side real quick, would anyone have done any more as governor to entice these companies to come into Wisconsin? Uh, I just wanna put piggyback on what Missy said because I think she made *** really *** point that um the conversations are happening as I’ve discussed with our neighbors in Ozauki County in Port Washington about how that entire project progressed, um, all of the discussion that was just had at this. This on this stage has been happening behind the scenes I think the answer to your previous question is if and when I I feel as governor there’s *** moment in time where it’s gonna be *** real threat to the to the power grid and the people of Wisconsin I think that’s when we step in and say no.
Future data centers are driving up forecasts for energy demand. States want proof they’ll get built
Updated: 12:09 AM EST Nov 15, 2025
Editorial Standards ⓘ
The forecasts are eye-popping: utilities saying they’ll need two or three times more electricity within a few years to power massive new data centers that are feeding a fast-growing AI economy.But the challenges — some say the impossibility — of building new power plants to meet that demand so quickly has set off alarm bells for lawmakers, policymakers and regulators who wonder if those utility forecasts can be trusted.Video above: Wisconsin governor candidates on data centersOne burning question is whether the forecasts are based on data center projects that may never get built — eliciting concern that regular ratepayers could be stuck with the bill to build unnecessary power plants and grid infrastructure at a cost of billions of dollars.The scrutiny comes as analysts warn of the risk of an artificial intelligence investment bubble that’s ballooned tech stock prices and could burst. Meanwhile, consumer advocates are finding that ratepayers in some areas — such as the mid-Atlantic electricity grid, which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C. — are already underwriting the cost to supply power to data centers, some of them built, some not.”There’s speculation in there,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid territory. “Nobody really knows. Nobody has been looking carefully enough at the forecast to know what’s speculative, what’s double-counting, what’s real, what’s not.”There is no standard practice across grids or for utilities to vet such massive projects, and figuring out a solution has become a hot topic, utilities and grid operators say.Uncertainty around forecasts is typically traced to a couple of things.One concerns developers seeking a grid connection, but whose plans aren’t set in stone or lack the heft — clients, financing or otherwise — to bring the project to completion, industry and regulatory officials say.Another is data center developers submitting grid connection requests in various separate utility territories, PJM Interconnection, which operates the mid-Atlantic grid, and Texas lawmakers have found.Often, developers, for competitive reasons, won’t tell utilities if or where they’ve submitted other requests for electricity, PJM said. That means a single project could inflate the energy forecasts of multiple utilities.The effort to improve forecasts got a high-profile boost in September, when a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member asked the nation’s grid operators for information on how they determine that a project is not only viable, but will use the electricity it says it needs.”Better data, better decision-making, better and faster decisions mean we can get all these projects, all this infrastructure built,” the commissioner, David Rosner, said in an interview.The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit electric utilities, said it welcomed efforts to improve demand forecasting.The Data Center Coalition, which represents tech giants like Google and Meta and data center developers, has urged regulators to request more information from utilities on their forecasts and to develop a set of best practices to determine the commercial viability of a data center project. The coalition’s vice president of energy, Aaron Tinjum, said improving the accuracy and transparency of forecasts is a “fundamental first step of really meeting this moment” of energy growth.”Wherever we go, the question is, ‘Is the (energy) growth real? How can we be so sure?’” Tinjum said. “And we really view commercial readiness verification as one of those important kind of low-hanging opportunities for us to be adopting at this moment.”Igal Feibush, the CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a data center developer, said utilities are in a “fire drill” as they try to vet a deluge of data center projects all seeking electricity. The vast majority, he said, will fall off because many project backers are new to the concept and don’t know what it takes to get a data center built.States also are trying to do more to find out what’s in utility forecasts and weed out speculative or duplicative projects.In Texas, which is attracting large data center projects, lawmakers still haunted by a blackout during a deadly 2021 winter storm were shocked when told in 2024 by the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that its peak demand could nearly double by 2030.They found that state utility regulators lacked the tools to determine whether that was realistic.Texas state Sen. Phil King told a hearing earlier this year that the grid operator, utility regulators and utilities weren’t sure if the power requests “are real or just speculative or somewhere in between.”Lawmakers passed legislation sponsored by King, now law, that requires data center developers to disclose whether they have requests for electricity elsewhere in Texas and to set standards for developers to show that they have a substantial financial commitment to a site.PPL Electric Utilities, which delivers power to 1.5 million customers across central and eastern Pennsylvania, projects that data centers will more than triple its peak electricity demand by 2030.Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL Corp., told analysts on an earnings call this month that the data center projects “are real, they are coming fast and furious” and that the “near-term risk of overbuilding generation simply does not exist.”The data center projects counted in the forecast are backed by contracts with financial commitments often reaching tens of millions of dollars, PPL said.Still, PPL’s projections helped spur a state lawmaker, Rep. Danilo Burgos, to introduce a bill to bolster the authority of state utility regulators to inspect how utilities assemble their energy demand forecasts.Ratepayers in Burgos’ Philadelphia district just absorbed an increase in their electricity bills — attributed by the utility, PECO, to the rising cost of wholesale electricity in the mid-Atlantic grid driven primarily by data center demand. That’s why ratepayers need more protection to ensure they are benefiting from the higher cost, Burgos said.”Once they make their buck, whatever company,” Burgos said, “you don’t see no empathy towards the ratepayers.”
HARRISBURG, Pa. —
The forecasts are eye-popping: utilities saying they’ll need two or three times more electricity within a few years to power massive new data centers that are feeding a fast-growing AI economy.
But the challenges — some say the impossibility — of building new power plants to meet that demand so quickly has set off alarm bells for lawmakers, policymakers and regulators who wonder if those utility forecasts can be trusted.
Video above: Wisconsin governor candidates on data centers
One burning question is whether the forecasts are based on data center projects that may never get built — eliciting concern that regular ratepayers could be stuck with the bill to build unnecessary power plants and grid infrastructure at a cost of billions of dollars.
The scrutiny comes as analysts warn of the risk of an artificial intelligence investment bubble that’s ballooned tech stock prices and could burst.
Meanwhile, consumer advocates are finding that ratepayers in some areas — such as the mid-Atlantic electricity grid, which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C. — are already underwriting the cost to supply power to data centers, some of them built, some not.
“There’s speculation in there,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid territory. “Nobody really knows. Nobody has been looking carefully enough at the forecast to know what’s speculative, what’s double-counting, what’s real, what’s not.”
There is no standard practice across grids or for utilities to vet such massive projects, and figuring out a solution has become a hot topic, utilities and grid operators say.
Uncertainty around forecasts is typically traced to a couple of things.
Marc Levy
This stretch of land between the Conodoguinet Creek and Country Club Road near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is in the planning stages to become a $15 billion data center complex, Friday Nov. 14, 2025, in Carlisle, Pa.
One concerns developers seeking a grid connection, but whose plans aren’t set in stone or lack the heft — clients, financing or otherwise — to bring the project to completion, industry and regulatory officials say.
Another is data center developers submitting grid connection requests in various separate utility territories, PJM Interconnection, which operates the mid-Atlantic grid, and Texas lawmakers have found.
Often, developers, for competitive reasons, won’t tell utilities if or where they’ve submitted other requests for electricity, PJM said. That means a single project could inflate the energy forecasts of multiple utilities.
The effort to improve forecasts got a high-profile boost in September, when a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member asked the nation’s grid operators for information on how they determine that a project is not only viable, but will use the electricity it says it needs.
“Better data, better decision-making, better and faster decisions mean we can get all these projects, all this infrastructure built,” the commissioner, David Rosner, said in an interview.
The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit electric utilities, said it welcomed efforts to improve demand forecasting.
The Data Center Coalition, which represents tech giants like Google and Meta and data center developers, has urged regulators to request more information from utilities on their forecasts and to develop a set of best practices to determine the commercial viability of a data center project.
The coalition’s vice president of energy, Aaron Tinjum, said improving the accuracy and transparency of forecasts is a “fundamental first step of really meeting this moment” of energy growth.
“Wherever we go, the question is, ‘Is the (energy) growth real? How can we be so sure?’” Tinjum said. “And we really view commercial readiness verification as one of those important kind of low-hanging opportunities for us to be adopting at this moment.”
Igal Feibush, the CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a data center developer, said utilities are in a “fire drill” as they try to vet a deluge of data center projects all seeking electricity.
The vast majority, he said, will fall off because many project backers are new to the concept and don’t know what it takes to get a data center built.
States also are trying to do more to find out what’s in utility forecasts and weed out speculative or duplicative projects.
In Texas, which is attracting large data center projects, lawmakers still haunted by a blackout during a deadly 2021 winter storm were shocked when told in 2024 by the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that its peak demand could nearly double by 2030.
They found that state utility regulators lacked the tools to determine whether that was realistic.
Texas state Sen. Phil King told a hearing earlier this year that the grid operator, utility regulators and utilities weren’t sure if the power requests “are real or just speculative or somewhere in between.”
Lawmakers passed legislation sponsored by King, now law, that requires data center developers to disclose whether they have requests for electricity elsewhere in Texas and to set standards for developers to show that they have a substantial financial commitment to a site.
PPL Electric Utilities, which delivers power to 1.5 million customers across central and eastern Pennsylvania, projects that data centers will more than triple its peak electricity demand by 2030.
Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL Corp., told analysts on an earnings call this month that the data center projects “are real, they are coming fast and furious” and that the “near-term risk of overbuilding generation simply does not exist.”
The data center projects counted in the forecast are backed by contracts with financial commitments often reaching tens of millions of dollars, PPL said.
Still, PPL’s projections helped spur a state lawmaker, Rep. Danilo Burgos, to introduce a bill to bolster the authority of state utility regulators to inspect how utilities assemble their energy demand forecasts.
Ratepayers in Burgos’ Philadelphia district just absorbed an increase in their electricity bills — attributed by the utility, PECO, to the rising cost of wholesale electricity in the mid-Atlantic grid driven primarily by data center demand.
That’s why ratepayers need more protection to ensure they are benefiting from the higher cost, Burgos said.
“Once they make their buck, whatever company,” Burgos said, “you don’t see no empathy towards the ratepayers.”
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