Pittsburgh, Pa – – September 24, 2025 -Senator Lindsey M. Williams (D-Allegheny) announced today that he would introduce Package of recipes In order to protect public utility clients in Pennsylvania against a rapid increase in electricity costs caused by data centers.
“Our families should not pay more for electricity, because huge data centers power Go to our districts – and certainly they should not subsidize the costs of electricity for giant corporations, “said Senator Willaims.” Western Pennsylvania has a long history of priorities for the needs of billionaires at the expense of people who have built this country. This is our chance to reverse this trend and make the needs of our working families, our seniors and everyday people. “
At the beginning of this month, Senator Williams joined other members of the Democratic Club during the trial of the Democratic Policy Committee in Pennsylvania regarding data centers: influence, activities and considerations of politics. During this hearing, Senator Williams asked Stephen Defranka, chairman of Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, or fresh data centers will contribute to public customer facilitate programs such as CAP. Chairman Defrank testified that data centers would not contribute to public customer facilitate programs because they are “behind the meter”, that is, they receive electricity directly from the supplier, not from the network. Despite this, data centers increase significant costs for housing bills.
According to Independent PJM market monitorThe increase in the load center load is the main reason for the recent increase in capacity prices. Were it not for data centers, capacity prices would be lower, which leads to lower energy bills for households in Pennsylvania.
Growing energy bills mean that more and more people will need facilitate in maintaining lights and heat. But commercial data centers – entities that increase energy bills – do not pay in customer aid programs in Pennsylvania (CAP). Rather, the cost of these programs applies only to residential clients, including low -income clients, who will most likely need facilitate.
Allegheny County United Way 211 consistently reports assistance in payments for electrical services among its The highest identified needs from the callers. Thanks to the financing of the Federal Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), referred to for the coming years, local customer assistance programs are more critical than ever.
“I appreciate the chairman of Defrank, devoting time to explaining how our customer assistance programs are financed and regulated,” continued Senator Williams. “This legislation is the first step towards maintaining lights for our seniors, families and children, while ensuring that our largest electricity users do not pay the least.”
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