There’s a quiet shift happening to the power grid that most homeowners haven’t connected to their monthly electric bill yet. Behind the artificial intelligence tools showing up everywhere, chatbots, image generators, search assistants, sits a vast and rapidly growing network of data centers. These facilities run thousands of energy-hungry computer chips around the clock, and they are reshaping the demand for electricity in a way the U.S. grid hasn’t seen in decades.
For homeowners across NEPA and surrounding regions in New York, that matters for two very practical reasons: your bill and your reliability. Here’s what’s happening, why it’s driving more families toward solar paired with battery backup, and how to think through your options in 2026.
The Data Center Surge, in Plain Numbers
For roughly twenty years, U.S. electricity demand barely grew at all. That era is over. The construction of massive new data centers, many built specifically to train and run AI models, has restarted serious growth in demand for the first time in a generation.
The scale is hard to overstate. One January 2026 analysis projected that the combined power demand of U.S. data centers will nearly double between 2025 and 2028, jumping from around 80 gigawatts to roughly 150 gigawatts, the equivalent of adding a country the size of Spain’s entire electricity appetite in just three years. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that data centers, which used about 4.4% of all U.S. electricity in 2023, could consume somewhere between 6.7% and 12% by 2028.
These aren’t ordinary customers, either. A single “hyperscale” facility can use as much electricity as a small city, and the largest can draw 5 gigawatts or more. Their power use is also “bursty,” it spikes and dips sharply during intensive computing, which puts unusual stress on a grid that was designed for steady, predictable loads.
Why This Shows Up on Your Electric Bill
When a region adds enormous new demand faster than it can add new power plants and transmission lines, something has to give. Usually, it’s prices.
Two forces are at work. First, all that new demand requires new electricity generation, and there’s a projected national shortfall of around 49 gigawatts of generating capacity through 2028, which is about 5% of total U.S. supply. When supply is tight, relative to demand, wholesale power prices climb. Second, connecting data centers requires expensive new infrastructure: high-voltage lines, substations, and transformers. Much of that cost gets spread across all the customers on the grid through rate increases approved by state regulators.
The result is already visible. Nationally, residential electricity prices have outpaced inflation, climbing roughly 42% since 2019, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration reporting an 11.5% jump in 2025 alone. Forecasts suggest prices could rise as much as another 40% by 2030 compared to 2025. In regions with heavy data center concentration, the increases have been steeper. Between early 2021 and early 2026, the average residential electricity prices rose 94% in Washington, D.C., 74% in Maryland, and 73% in Maine.
To be clear and fair about it, data centers aren’t the only cause of rising bills. An aging grid, equipment costs, and fuel prices all play a role, and the impact varies a lot by region. Some utility-commissioned studies argue data centers are footing most of their own costs in certain markets. But the broader trend is hard to ignore, and it’s why lawmakers in more than 30 states introduced over 300 bills in 2026 alone aimed at how data centers connect to the grid and who pays for it.
What this Means Here in PPL Country
Northeast Pennsylvania sits inside the PJM grid region, which is the same regional market that serves much of the Mid-Atlantic and the world’s largest concentration of data centers in Northern Virginia. PJM’s capacity auction prices, which feed directly into what utilities charge, have already spiked for the 2026–2027 delivery year. Homeowners on PPL’s grid already pay some of the highest rates in our area. When regional demand climbs because of data centers hundreds of miles away, the costs don’t stop at the state line, they ripple across the whole interconnected market.
The Other Half of the Story: Reliability
Higher bills are one problem. Keeping the lights on is another.
The U.S. grid is old. Roughly 70% of the nation’s power lines were built more than 25 years ago, with many dating to the 1960s and 1970s. Layering record-breaking new demand on top of that aging infrastructure raises real concerns about reliability, especially during the peak-demand stretches of summer heat and winter cold, exactly when a sudden outage hurts us the most.
For families in our service area, outages aren’t hypothetical. Storm season, ice, and high winds already knock out power across NEPA and Southern New York every year. When you depend entirely on the grid, a multi-hour or multi-day outage means no heat, no refrigeration, no well pump, and no medical equipment until the utility restores service. As the grid gets stretched thinner, the case for not relying on it alone gets stronger.
How Solar + Battery Backup Changes Your Position
This is where pairing rooftop solar with a home battery becomes genuinely powerful. Solar panels alone reduce how much electricity you buy from the utility, which is meaningful when rates keep climbing but adding a battery does something solar by itself can’t: it gives you control and resilience.
Here’s what a solar-plus-battery system does for a homeowner:
It locks in more of your own power. Every kilowatt-hour you produce and use yourself is one you don’t buy at tomorrow’s higher rate. As utility prices rise, the value of your own generation rises right along with them.
It keeps you running when the grid goes down. A properly configured battery automatically powers your essential loads, lights, refrigerator, well pump, heating system, the moment the grid fails, often so seamlessly the lights don’t even flicker. Solar recharges the battery the next day, so you’re not limited to a single charge the way you would be in a prolonged outage.
It lets you avoid the most expensive hours. With more utilities moving toward time-of-use pricing, a battery lets you store cheaper or self-generated power and draw on it during peak-rate windows instead of paying premium prices.
It moves you toward energy independence. The less you depend on a strained, aging grid, the more insulated you are from both rate hikes and outages. That’s the whole idea behind the systems we build.
For homeowners who want maximum peace of mind, solar and battery storage can also be paired with a whole-home standby generator, solar and storage handle everyday savings and shorter outages, while the generator provides extended runtime during the longest storms.
What Changed for 2026 — and Why it Still Pays Off
If you’ve been on the fence, here’s an important update. The 30% federal residential clean energy tax credit, which for years covered solar panels and home batteries for homeowners who bought their systems, expired on December 31, 2025 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Homeowners who purchase a system outright in 2026 can no longer claim that 30% credit on their personal tax return.
That sounds discouraging, but it’s not the whole picture:
- Leases and power purchase agreements (PPAs) can still capture federal incentive value through the commercial credit (Section 48E), which remains available through 2027. That value can be passed along to homeowners in the form of lower payments.
- State and utility incentives continue in many areas, including net metering that credits you for excess power you send back to the grid.
- The fundamentals still work. Solar panels produce power for decades a system installed today will be generating into the 2050s. With electricity prices rising the way they are, payback periods in most markets remain under ten years even without the federal credit, and the savings compound for decades afterward. Battery storage is now included on roughly 40% of new residential solar installations nationwide, and more than 60% in some markets, a sign of how central backup power has become to the decision.
In other words, the math that made solar and battery storage attractive, rising rates, an unreliable grid, and the value of energy independence, hasn’t gone away. If anything, the data center boom has strengthened it.
The Bottom Line
The AI revolution is being built on electricity, and a lot of it. That demand is pushing up prices and putting new strain on a grid that was already showing its age. Homeowners don’t get a vote in where data centers get built, but you do get a choice about how exposed your household is to the consequences.
Solar paired with battery backup is, increasingly, the clearest answer to both problems at once: it shields you from rising rates and keeps your home powered when the grid can’t. For families across Northeast Pennsylvania and Southern New York, that combination of savings and security is exactly why more neighbors are making the switch.
Talk to a Local Team That's Been Serving the Region since 1984
Buselli Solutions is a family-owned, NABCEP-certified energy company serving NEPA and Southern New York with custom solar, battery backup, whole-home generators, and energy-efficient HVAC. We design every system around your home, your budget, and your goals, and we’re happy to walk you through your real options in today’s market, including current state and utility incentives and flexible financing.
Ready to take control of your energy? Call us at 570-729-7791 or request a free quote to find out what solar and battery backup could do for your home.
This article is for general informational purposes and does not constitute tax or financial advice. Incentive programs and electricity rates change frequently and vary by location; please consult a qualified tax professional and your local utility for guidance specific to your situation.