whyy.org: WHYY outlines steps Pennsylvania residents can take to lower rising electric bills, including home weatherization, energy efficient appliances, and free state energy audits available to qualifying households. Rate increases tied to data center growth, infrastructure costs, and PJM capacity auction pricing have driven bills up sharply across the state.
delawarebusinessnow.com reports Constellation Energy agreed to sell 4.4 gigawatts of natural gas generation capacity across five plants in Delaware and Pennsylvania to LS Power for $5 billion as a required divestiture under DOJ and FERC conditions for Constellation's acquisition of Calpine.
The PA House Energy Committee advanced two bills along party lines requiring large data centers to report annual energy and water usage and establishing a model local zoning framework municipalities can adopt to guide where and how such facilities are built.
Gov. Shapiro is courting major tech investments including Amazon and Microsoft as dozens of data centers are planned statewide, but experts warn the grid was not designed for customers to come online at this scale, raising questions about power supply, water demand, and local land use planning.
PA utility regulators warn that ratepayers will face higher costs as neighboring states lean on Pennsylvania generation to back up their renewable energy targets, while surging demand from data centers and electric vehicles creates what critics describe as a perfect storm for the regional grid.
A Temple University professor urges Gov. Shapiro to direct his proposed $1 billion infrastructure fund toward water and wastewater systems, citing Pennsylvania drinking water infrastructure grades of D from the American Society of Civil Engineers and ongoing PFAS contamination in private wells statewide.
PECO net profits jumped nearly 50% between 2024 and 2025 to $814 million following back to back rate hikes, raising concerns among consumer advocates about the incentive structure for investor owned utilities and the ongoing impact on residential customers already facing higher energy bills.
The Shapiro administration issued administrative orders blocking two proposed ICE detention centers in Berks and Schuylkill counties, asserting that converting the warehouses to hold 9,000 people would exceed local water and sewage capacity and violate state environmental regulations.
PJM Interconnection warns that the region will fail to meet required power reserves starting June 2027 due to slow replacement of retiring power plants and surging demand from electrification and data centers, leaving the 13-state grid more vulnerable to outages for the first time in its history.
While data centers are driving significant electricity demand growth, states have existing processes to manage large developments and many proposed projects are unlikely to be built. A new report shows data centers account for about 9% of global electricity demand increase through 2030, with factories leading at 36.5%.