Data centers’ effect on utility bills — what real estate agents need to know

For real estate agents, data centers are increasingly part of conversations about nearby development, noise, views, water use and potential effects on property values.But another question may be just as relevant to a client’s decision to buy, sell or remain in a home — whether the enormous amount of electricity required by data centers could eventually affect the monthly cost of powering that home.The answer is complicated. Data centers do not automatically raise residential utility bills, and electricity prices are affected by many factors.But Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program, says the unprecedented scale of data-center development has created a fundamental question about who pays when utilities build new power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure to serve them.Peskoe is a co-author, with Harvard Legal Fellow Eliza Martin, of the 2025 report “Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power.”Researchers reviewed nearly 50 regulatory proceedings involving utility rates for data centers and examined how rate structures, infrastructure spending...