Why electricity prices are still high in 2026 — and the fight over who pays next
Electric bills are climbing across much of the U.S., with a Fast Company report on Thursday pointing to the AI data center boom as a major stress on the grid. In the Bay Area, PG&E’s average bill has jumped nearly 70% over five years, the report noted. A Bloomberg analysis it cited found electricity prices near some data centers have soared as much as 267% during the same stretch. Ryan Hledik of Brattle Group said, “We are seeing utilities run out of that spare capacity.” Fast Company added that Microsoft has pledged to cover grid upgrade costs tied to its new data centers. Oregon has taken a different approach, passing laws requiring data centers to pay their own bills. Some proposals would even classify these facilities as “interruptible,” meaning “they’re going to be the ones that get shut off first, not Grandma’s house,” said NRDC’s Jackson Morris.
