A 2026 study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), using a causal statistical approach, found that residential retail rates in the average state would have been about 6% higher between 2019 and 2024 without the data centers built in that period — because large customers helped spread the fixed costs of the grid across more usage.
Utilities, state regulators, and Congress have been debating how to structure rates so that data centers pay for the infrastructure they specifically require, rather than shifting those costs to residential ratepayers.
In Northwest Indiana, NIPSCO has addressed this directly through its GenCo model — a first-in-the-nation framework approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in late 2025 that isolates the costs and risks of new generation built for hyperscale customers, so existing households and businesses are not on the hook for data center–driven expansion.