Harvard Review of 50 Rate Cases Finds Ratepayers Footing Big Tech's Power Bill
How it leans Ratepayers are paying · Independent academic (Harvard Law)
What's documented Academic legal review of nearly 50 regulatory proceedings; names the specific rate-design mechanisms, not just a topline number.
Eliza Martin and Ari Peskoe at Harvard reviewed close to 50 utility rate proceedings and argue the mechanics of rate design quietly move data center costs onto everyone else. The core insight is structural: utilities earn a regulated return on infrastructure they build, so they have an incentive to build, and confidential special contracts let them recover those costs through general rates with limited scrutiny. This is the cleanest articulation of why load growth and the affordability backlash are two ends of the same cost question.
- Reviews nearly 50 state regulatory proceedings on utility rates for data centers.
- Identifies at least three avenues by which costs reach other ratepayers, including confidential special contracts reviewed through opaque processes.
- Authors are Eliza Martin and Ari Peskoe of Harvard Law School's Electricity Law Initiative, released March 5, 2025.
- Frames the issue as a structural incentive: utilities profit from the regulated return on infrastructure they build to serve the load.