Data Centers Are Already Causing Our Power Bills To Rise
Electric bills across rural Pennsylvania have been climbing, and data centers are a major reason. That conclusion comes from the independent market monitor for PJM Interconnection, the regional grid serving Pennsylvania and 12 other states plus Washington, D.C.
Monitoring Analytics reports that data-center demand drove roughly $29.4 billion in capacity charges across the last four PJM auctions—about 46 percent of the $63.6 billion total. In the most recent auction, data centers accounted for approximately $6.3 billion of $16.4 billion in charges. Those costs are spread across the grid and appear on retail bills whether or not a data center is nearby.
Now a large facility is proposed in Venango County. Keel Infrastructure is advancing plans for a data-center campus at the Scrubgrass power-plant site in Scrubgrass Township, about seven miles from Emlenton. Company materials describe a roughly 650-acre site with potential capacity of up to 1,300 megawatts for high-performance computing and artificial-intelligence workloads. Keel has discussed adding as much as 550 megawatts of new natural-gas generation while drawing the rest from the grid.
The project is early. No final design has been released. The company hopes to break ground in 2027, with construction possibly lasting into the early 2030s and operations beginning in phases. At community meetings, including sessions at the Clintonville Fire Hall, Keel executives projected hundreds of permanent operating jobs and thousands of construction positions, and said the company will pay for infrastructure upgrades and meet state standards.
Keel is the rebranded successor to Bitfarms, a Canadian Bitcoin-mining firm. It redomiciled to the United States in 2026 and is publicly traded. Financing for its Pennsylvania plans has included support from Macquarie Group, an Australian bank. The company has exited U.S. Bitcoin mining, including at Scrubgrass, to focus on data centers, and intends to build the campus and lease it to an unnamed tenant/s.
The site has its own history. In 2022, under previous ownership, state regulators reviewed a plan to grade part of the property with coal ash to support solar panels. That same industrial footprint is now the focus of the data-center proposal.
Data centers pay for the electricity they use. The larger question is who pays for the new transmission lines, substations, and generation needed to serve them. Under current rules those costs can fall on all ratepayers unless protections apply.
In August 2026, Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order requiring larger data-center developers to make a legally binding commitment to the state’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards—and obtain local approval—before the Department of Environmental Protection reviews permits. Those standards include covering infrastructure costs and supplying substantial power. An executive order is not a statute.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has issued a model tariff for large-load customers that emphasizes cost-causation principles. The guidance remains voluntary. House Bill 2828 would require utilities to adopt it; the bill cleared the House Energy Committee in late September 2026 and still needs full votes. A comparable federal measure failed in the Senate 57-43.
Keel has said it will cover upgrades and meet the governor’s standards. Potential benefits—jobs, tax revenue, reuse of an industrial site—are real considerations. Verbal assurances at meetings, however, are not the same as signed, enforceable agreements that protect ratepayers if a project is delayed, reduced, or abandoned.
Because the proposal remains pre-permit, key details are still open: the final split between grid power and on-site generation; whether cost commitments will be locked into binding contracts; the identity of the tenant; water use and sources; how many operating jobs will be permanent and local; and whether tax abatements are sought. Scrubgrass Township has adopted a data-center ordinance and is building planning capacity. Neighboring municipalities may follow.
Ratepayers already absorb a share of regional data-center costs through the PJM market. A large facility in Venango County raises the stakes for local accountability. Residents can attend township meetings, contact their state legislators about House Bill 2828, and monitor utility rate cases before the Public Utility Commission. The Office of Consumer Advocate represents residential customers in those proceedings and can explain how to file comments.
The core request is straightforward. A developer seeking to build a multi-hundred-megawatt facility should be prepared to show, in writing and with enforceable terms, that ordinary customers will not subsidize the grid upgrades required to serve it.
