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Little Hoover Commission hearing spotlights data-center strain on California grid, ratepayer and water risks
Summary
Witnesses told the Little Hoover Commission that rapid data-center growth—PG&E has said it foresees more than 10 GW of demand—could require large, long-lived grid investments added to utility rate bases, raising electricity bills for California households; witnesses urged data-center–specific tariffs, faster interconnections and greater transparency on energy and water use.
Elise Torres, assistant managing attorney of the energy team at the Utility Reform Network (TURN), warned the Little Hoover Commission that the scale of proposed data-center load could drive significant electricity rate increases for California households.
"PG&E is forecasting data center demand of over 10 gigawatts," Torres said, adding that TURN's review of utility filings shows that such new load would be financed through capital investments added to the utility rate base and recovered from all customers over decades. In Torres's testimony TURN estimated PG&E's grid and generation capital investment to support each gigawatt of data-center load at "between half a billion and $1.6 billion," and cited interconnection cost figures in the tens of millions per site.
Why it matters: Utilities recover infrastructure spending through rates and, as Torres and public commenters emphasized, many residential and small-business customers have limited ability to absorb further price increases. Torres told commissioners that data centers frequently connect at the transmission level and pay…
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