Utilities request $18.6 billion in rate hikes so far this year

Utility companies asked regulators for $18.6 billion in electric and gas rate increases in the first half of this year, according to a nonprofit watchdog group called PowerLines. That comes on top of $31 billion in requests last year and $15 billion in 2024. State regulators tend to approve most of what utilities ask for, so these requests often do turn into higher bills.

In the second quarter alone, utilities across 15 Southern states, including Virginia, Florida, and Texas, asked for $4.5 billion in increases affecting 26 million customers. In Texas, Oncor requested the largest single hike, $1.2 billion, tied to a five-year, $45 billion plan to expand power lines for oil and gas operations and data centers in the Permian Basin. In Virginia, Dominion Energy asked for $1.5 billion, mostly to cover fuel costs. In Michigan, both DTE Energy and Consumers Energy requested nearly $500 million each. If DTE's request is approved, it would add to $242 million approved in February and $217 million approved last year. DTE has said it won't file another rate request until at least 2028, but only if two data center projects from Oracle and Google come online, since those projects are expected to contribute close to $9 billion toward grid upgrades that would otherwise fall on other customers.

Rising bills are often blamed on data centers, but research suggests the bigger drivers are aging infrastructure, storm damage repairs, and rules that reward utilities for building new equipment rather than making the grid more efficient. Whether your own bill goes up depends on what your state's regulators decide.