Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power

Technology companies are looking to secure electricity for their new power-hungry data centers. To provide energy to these new facilities, electric utilities are expanding their systems with new power plants and transmission lines. Because utilities profit by building infrastructure, serving data centers is a lucrative opportunity that is incentivizing utilities to offer attractive rates to Big Tech companies.

In this Energy Policy Seminar, Ari Peskoe, Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program, will present a recent paper that explains how utilities are forcing ratepayers to fund discounted rates for data centers.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome to attend via Zoom.

Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the Belfer Center's YouTube channel.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Co-Sponsors: Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

About the Speaker

Ari Peskoe is the Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program. He has written extensively about regulation of the U.S. power sector, on issues ranging from Constitutional challenges to states’ energy laws to interstate transmission development. Prior to the Environmental and Energy Law Program, Ari was an associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C. where he litigated before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the Western Energy Crisis. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in electrical engineering and business.