Could data centers drive up Illinois electric bills? CUB says consumers need protection

Welcome back. Citizens Utility Board, CUB, is sharing data that shows a wide gap between the cost of data centers and the amount that ComEd is proposing to charge Illinois households. So we want to talk about this here to discuss these costs with us this morning. Jim Chilson with the Citizens Utility Board. Jim, good to have you. Thank you. Good to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about what you learned from these ComEd documents. Sure. In a regulatory before the Illinois Commerce Commission. ComEd gave us a list of about 30 large load projects. Those are big energy users. We think all, most or all of them are data centers. They project that they're going to have to spend three billion dollars in years to come to do transmission and distribution upgrades to connect those data centers. And unfortunately, those data centers so far have only paid about less than a quarter of that in deposits and other fees we're worried that consumers are going to be on the hook for billions of dollars that data centers should be covering themselves our big point is that we need consumer protections to ensure that any spending ComEd does on behalf of data centers is recovered from those same data centers and not through our electric bills yeah it feels to me like uh data centers, if they're the ones that want to tax the system and require this extra capacity, that they should really have to foot a lot of this bill, and it shouldn't fall on the rest of the consumers. Now, I understand ComEd is saying that your cost comparison, I guess this preliminary cost comparison, let's go to their statement right now. The statement that there is only $721 million collected in deposits against $3.1 billion in costs is not complete. It paints an inaccurate picture. How do you respond to that, Jim? Yeah, well, let's get that in writing. If that is the case, then let's pass good policy like the Power Act to ensure that any cost that ComEd takes in because of connecting these data centers is covered by those actual data centers. We've been hearing from ComEd and data centers for a long time, trust us, the bills are going to get paid. There's one way to guarantee that is to pass strong policy both before the Illinois Commerce Commission and in the General Assembly through the Power Act to make sure that any cost data centers are causing are covered by those data centers. Speaking of that, I was just reading that there is a new bill that is being introduced federally I think that would be required and it would make these data centers work or require them to cover the full additional cost of meeting their power requirements. What can you say about something like that, and do you think a bill like that has any legs? Yeah, well, let me tell you, legislators at the state level and at the federal level have been hearing from a lot of people who are frustrated because electric bills are going through the roof, and the major reason is soaring demand caused by new and proposed data centers. So yes, we do think it has legs. We think we can pass the Power Act in Illinois, but this is a very complex problem. It requires solutions at multiple levels, including the federal level. We've been supportive of the Power for the People Act, and there are many other bills out there that are trying to reform the way we allocate costs to make sure data centers are paying their own costs. So this is a good step forward. We think that these reform measures do have legs. Okay, before we let you go, Jim, if folks are passionate about this issue, because we've been hearing that AI data centers is like what is behind and it's almost bipartisan yeah exactly and it's behind what what is uh causing the stock market to do really well right now what what is your advice is it one of those hey let your your your your city leaders know your state leaders know what what can they do if they want to make their voices heard on this issue absolutely thank you for asking let your elected leaders know at the local level state level at the federal level you can go to cubactioncenter.com you can send a message in favor of the Power Act which would put common sense guard rails on these data centers to make sure they're paying for the cost that they cause all right Jim Chilson with Cub thank you for your time this morning and getting in front of this issue, really. Appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Have a good day.