President Trump announced Thursday an expansion of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, bringing more than 200 additional utilities, data center developers, energy cooperatives, and state governments into the national initiative.
The framework aims to ensure that the rapid construction of energy-intensive artificial intelligence data centers does not lead to higher electric bills for residential households and commercial businesses.
Under the terms of the agreement, large data center operators are required to fund the electricity generation and grid infrastructure required for their projects rather than transferring those expenses to general utility ratepayers.
Building on earlier commitments from major technology companies, officials stated that the expanded pledge now covers roughly 80% of all power delivered to homes and businesses across the United States, extending protections to an estimated 263 million Americans.
The announcement detailed several state-level utility agreements arranged under the pledge framework:
Michigan: DTE Energy reached agreements with Google and Oracle in which the tech firms cover their full energy and capacity expenses, a setup projected to yield billions in customer savings.
Indiana: NiSource finalized arrangements with Amazon and Alphabet expected to return at least $1.4 billion to consumers over a 15-year period.
Georgia: Southern Company committed to freezing base electricity rates through 2029 while delivering over $1.7 billion in savings, reducing the typical residential bill by more than $100 annually.
Mississippi: Entergy’s deal with Amazon is projected to generate approximately $2 billion in total consumer benefits, including full funding for new transmission lines and related infrastructure costs.
Wisconsin: Alliant Energy partnered with developers including QTS to ensure companies pay 100% of their energy and infrastructure costs alongside a five-year rate freeze.
Louisiana: Entergy secured an agreement ensuring Meta pays all connection costs for its Richland Parish data center facility.
Texas: Crusoe is powering its 900-megawatt Abilene campus using independent, on-site natural gas generation and battery storage.
The administration framed the expanded pledge as a private-sector mechanism to maintain energy affordability for households while continuing the expansion of domestic technology and computational infrastructure.
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