The future of data centers isn’t being decided in Silicon Valley boardrooms or Washington backrooms. It’s being shaped on Main Street, in town councils and utility commissions across America. What’s emerging is a new “community contract” that delivers for both sides – joining the data center boom with key local investments and benefits.
That contract is the foundation for the largest infrastructure buildout in a generation. As Fortune recently covered, PJM’s independent market monitor recently tied the expected demand from data centers to roughly $23 billion in higher electricity costs for customers across the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, running through at least 2028. It is the hardest question the industry has faced in decades: how to meet the massive energy demand of new data centers, while keeping the lights on and bills affordable.
