The argument that has been made against utilities expanding their power generation capabilities to allow for data center and other industrial demands has been the harm it might cause to ratepayers.
But Public Service Company of Oklahoma, a utility that has gone before Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners with requests for approval of millions of dollars in additional power generating projects contends the data centers will actually help lower bills for ratepayers.
It uses the case of sister company, Indiana Michigan Power which is asking Indiana regulators to sign off on a rate reduction that could save about $100 a year for a typical residential customer. Indiana Michigan Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power, the parent of PSO. Indiana Michigan claims the total savings in 2027 would be about $59 million, as reported by OK Energy Today sister OK Politics Today.
“PSO’s large-load tariff proposal in the current rate review was modeled after the Indiana approach, with the intent of achieving a similar rate reduction for PSO customers in the future,” PSO communications director Michael Gordon told OK Politics Today.
“If the Oklahoma Commission adopts the Indiana approach, as PSO advocates it should, that would place downward pressure on rates as large loads begin taking service in the future,” Gordon said.
A separate case involving OG&E and three planned Google data centers provides another example of how a utility says unusually large new customers could benefit existing ratepayers.
Direct testimony filed with the Corporation Commission projects that spreading existing system costs across Google’s additional electricity demand could produce an illustrative residential benefit of about $1.83 a month by 2027. The projected benefit increases to $5.33 by 2031 and $6.84 by 2036 as Google’s operations expand.
The figures are projections, not promised reductions in monthly bills.
