Senators Seek Information on Energy Consumption of Data Centers

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley are calling on the U.S. central energy information agency to improve transparency regarding the electricity consumption of data centers.

In a joint letter sent to the Energy Information Administration on Thursday morning, which was reviewed by WIRED, Hawley and Warren urged the agency to publicly gather “comprehensive, annual energy-use disclosures” from data centers. They emphasize that this data is “essential for accurate grid planning and will support policymaking to ensure that large corporations do not drive up electricity costs for American families.”

As the proliferation of data centers expands nationwide, there are growing concerns among voters about how their substantial energy demands could raise electricity bills; this issue influenced several midterm elections in states with a high concentration of data centers, like Virginia and Georgia. Last month, Hawley collaborated with Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal on a bill that would require data centers to establish their own power sources to shield consumers. Earlier this month, Donald Trump gathered executives from major tech firms at the White House to sign a nonbinding agreement that commits them to financing their own power for data centers.

“If we’re concerned about consumers covering data-center energy costs, understanding how much energy these centers are consuming is a vital part of that calculation,” states Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program. “While it’s not the sole piece of information needed, it is certainly an important aspect of the overall picture.”

Many alarming articles are circulating about the anticipated energy usage of data centers in the coming years, yet obtaining official statistics on their current or projected electricity consumption proves challenging. No federal agency specifically tracks energy consumption data from data centers. Information regarding water or electricity usage at individual data centers can be seen as proprietary business information and is typically released voluntarily by the company. Additionally, an increasing number of data centers are opting for their own power sources, disconnected from the grid—referred to as behind-the-meter power—making it even harder to assess total energy consumption.

Utilities have access to energy usage data from data centers in their areas, which they use to plan for growth. However, data centers often seek out various utilities, leading to double-counting of projects and forecasts of “phantom” growth—data centers that will never actually be established in their locales. The CEO of Vistra, a retail electricity firm, pointed out during its first-quarter earnings call last year that utilities might be overestimating electricity demand by three to five times the necessary amount.

In December, EIA administrator Tristan Abbey noted at a roundtable that he believes the EIA “will play a vital role in providing objective data and analysis to policymakers” regarding data centers. The agency announced on Wednesday that it would launch a voluntary pilot program to gather energy consumption information from nearly 200 companies running data centers in Texas, Washington, and Virginia, covering “energy sources, electricity usage, site characteristics, server metrics, and cooling systems.”

While the senators commend the EIA pilot program, their letter raises several questions about the agency’s plans for future data collection, including whether the energy surveys will be mandatory and if the EIA will account for behind-the-meter power. The senators stress that this information will be critical to ensuring that the major tech companies that signed the recent White House agreement—committing that consumers will not absorb the costs of data center electricity use—adhere to their commitments.