American Public Power Association President & CEO Scott Corwin on July 23 participated in a White House event to reaffirm public power utilities’ commitment to ensuring customers are not burdened with costs caused by infrastructure investment to meet growing data center demand.
"We are pleased to be a signatory to the Ratepayer Protection Pledge on behalf of public power, which aligns with our position that other utility customers should not bear the brunt of the costs of serving data centers," said Corwin. "It reinforces our long-standing focus on energy affordability and reliability for public power utility customers."
Public power utilities are already acting to protect their customers. Many have adopted, or are developing, rates, terms, and conditions for new large-load customers.
APPA said it appreciates the Administration’s recognition of the importance of protecting electric customers from the costs of serving large data centers.
In early March, the White House hosted an event with seven major hyperscaler AI companies where they signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge containing specific actions to help protect other electric ratepayers. To learn more about the pledge, see this White House fact sheet.
To learn more about what APPA is doing to advance affordability, see its two-page Public Power Affordability Agenda fact sheet.
Public power utilities, state and regional associations and other public power groups signing the pledge are:
- Colorado Springs Utilities
- Grand River Dam Authority
- Lower Colorado River Authority
- Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia
- Nebraska Public Power District
- Omaha Public Power District
- Public Power Council
- Salt River Project
- Santee Cooper
- Snohomish County Public Utility District
- Tennessee Valley Public Power Association
- Florida Municipal Power Agency
- Northern Wasco County PUD
- Conway Corp
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- LPPC
Nebraska Governor Highlights Public Power's Role in State
Also attending the White House event was Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen.
He noted that his state is served by public power, which means that “we have the best electrical rates for the two million Nebraskans. That’s really, really an important piece for all the people in Nebraska.”
Pillen said that because of the state’s being served by public power, “we’ve been the leader of data centers,” which started “long before anybody knew what data centers were,” noting the state’s attractive rates.
Pillen signed legislation that will help preserve current energy production in the state, establish requirements for facilities that want to generate their own power and ensure that customers are not left to foot the bill for the additional usage, Pillen’s office said on June 2.
The new law is supported by Lincoln Electric System, Nebraska Public Power Utility District and the Omaha Public Power District, all public power utilities in the state.
