Senators want datacenters to come clean on power consumption

Summary

US senators are pushing to require datacenters and other large energy customers to report consumption, arguing the data is essential to hold them accountable to local communities. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley have written [PDF] to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) – the official energy statistics agency of the US government – urging it to establish mandatory annual reporting for large loads such as datacenters. The letter references the Ratepayer Protection Pledge that President Trump urged the biggest AI and cloud companies to sign earlier this month. The agreement intends to shield American consumers in the event that bills rise due to AI's growing energy appetite. However, as The Register noted at the time, there is no enforcement mechanism. Senators Warren and Hawley say both Congress and the public currently lack the data needed to hold these companies to this voluntary pledge. Standardized reporting is essential to delivering the oversight necessary to combat rising utility costs. "To ensure adherence to these commitments, and to better understand the current and future impact of datacenters and other large loads on the electrical grid, it is critical that EIA mandate annual, comprehensive reporting for these entities," the letter adds. With electricity demand now growing rapidly after years of relative stagnation, the senators argue that unreliable data on massive energy users poses serious risks to grid planning. Utilities rely on demand projections from customers like datacenters when deciding whether to build costly new infrastructure, and those costs are typically passed to residential customers through higher rates. The problem has been building for some time. The Register reported in 2024 that Americans faced a 70 percent hike in electricity bills by the end of the decade, unless action was taken to boost generation and transmission capacity. By late last year, senators were already raising concerns about datacenters increasing co...