The PowerBill

Which rules decide your exposure?

Whether a new data centre can push cost onto your bill is decided by a handful of mechanisms, and which ones apply depends on where you live and how you buy power. Answer eight questions and this names them, and tells you which filing to go and read.

What this is: an editorial mapping from your answers to the mechanisms described on who decides who pays. It is not legal or regulatory advice, and it does not know your utility. Its job is to make your next search a specific one instead of a vague one. Nothing is uploaded.


The mechanisms in one table

MechanismPuts cost on households?
Capacity marketYes by design — the clearing price is recovered across the footprint
Large-load / data centre tariffNo, when it holds — the point is to make the new load carry its own cost
Connection and reinforcement chargesDepends on whether the cost is attributed or socialised
General rate caseIndirectly — and it is where you can file a comment

Full explanation, including where the decision sits in the US and the EU: who decides who pays. The evidence on whether any of this is actually moving bills: the judgement page.