A Bipartisan Issue: Making Sure Data Centers Don’t Increase Pennsylvanians’ Power Bills
With inflation rampant since COVID, Pennsylvanians are understandably concerned about the prices they pay for core items. Nothing is more core than energy costs, which are fresh in our mind as a cold winter will soon be (please, please, please) winding down.
Accordingly, a bipartisan push aims to make sure that all the mega data center development that may be coming to the Commonwealth does not impact our power bills.
Federal: President Donald Trump has indicated that as pro-AI development as he is, the power generation infrastructure required by these massive data centers will be the financial responsibility of the hyperscale cloud providers, not on the backs of other ratepayers.
A senior White House official told the Hill, “We are going to embrace data centers, but not at the price … of raising costs for consumers. So, if you want to invest and build data centers, you’ve got to do it in the right way, the way that is not going to pass that cost onto consumers.”
State: In his annual address to the state assembly on February 4th Governor Josh Shapiro made it clear that Pennsylvania officials understandably have no appetite for alienating their constituents when it comes to data centers.
In his remarks Shapiro stated, “developers must commit to bringing their own power generation – or paying entirely for the new generation they’ll need and not saddling homeowners and businesses with added costs because of their development.” He also called on greater community involvement in the decisions on projects currently “shrouded in secrecy.”
Bipartisan Consensus: With the impact of gargantuan data center developments on the forefront of the minds of many Pennsylvanians, making the tech giants pay for their own power infrastructure is a no brainer. Additionally, leaning on hyperscalers to be clear and open with these projects is both good governance and good politics. They combine to hit all the hot buttons of having the support of the people, without costing taxpayers a bundle, and being the right things to do.
Existing Fully Powered Data Center Deployments: Eastern Pennsylvania energy rates will continue to be unaffected by the Direct LTx data center in Reading. We’re not a new development; we’ve been in business for nearly two decades, having purchased an electrical utility’s rock-solid, massively resilient data center in order to give organizations full access to the digital economy an hour west of Philadelphia.
We welcome those looking to host an educational event for their industry or school, as well as companies who want to join the dozens of Eastern Pennsylvania enterprises hosting their data center deployments in our state-of-the-art facility. Come take a look at what an AI-ready data center, bolstered by over $20 million in power infrastructure upgrades, looks like. Email us at strategy@DirectLTx.com to schedule a guided tour.