North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein, wants the state Utilities Commission to impose “large load” tariffs on the companies that run data centres, WRAL reported on 27 October. Stein also wants it to go beyond an agreed settlement with Duke Energy that proposes such tariffs, by requiring the companies to provide clean energy as well. “There is no reason why the largest, wealthiest companies in the history of the world cannot be required to pay for the energy generation and transmission costs that they put onto the system,” Stein said. Stein pointed to Google paying for nearly 2,000 megawatts of wind, solar and battery storage in Minnesota, Amazon providing 960 megawatts of clean energy in Indiana and Meta paying for 1,200 megawatts of nuclear power in Ohio. “North Carolina should be receiving these same kinds of commitments, but right now we’re getting none of them,” Stein added.
The intervention came a week before the midterm elections on 3 November. Governors will be chosen in 36 states, Reuters reported on 31 October, and Politico counts 19 utility commissioner seats on the ballot in nine states across the South, Southwest and Great Plains, including Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana and Alabama. “It could be the first election to feature utilities and electricity, specifically, as a prominent issue in the midterms,” Charles Hua, executive director of PowerLines, a consumer-focused non-profit, said.
What the price data show
The average US residential price was 18.16 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2026, against 17.57 cents a year earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration. The rise was steeper in several data-centre hubs and swing states. Virginia went from 15.85 to 17.64 cents, Ohio from 17.55 to 19.38, Pennsylvania from 19.93 to 21.77 and Michigan from 20.73 to 22.99. North Carolina rose more gently, from 14.59 to 14.95 cents. Utilities requested a record of about $4.5bn of rate increases in the third quarter, taking the year’s total to $23.1bn, according to PowerLines.
Why it matters for long-horizon owners
A universal owner sits on every side of this trade: the regulated utilities that build the grid, their bonds, the hyperscalers that buy the power and the infrastructure funds that finance the build-out. Utilities plan a record of nearly $1.3 trillion of capital spending over the next five years, according to S&P Global Regulatory Research Associates, as cited by Reuters. That spending earns a return only if commissions let it into rates, which makes the commissioners’ politics a direct input into utility cash flows. Fitch downgraded the North American utility sector to “deteriorating” from “neutral” in June, Reuters noted.
For a pension fund or sovereign investor, the exposure sits in assets usually held for stability. Regulated utility equity and long-dated utility credit are prized for predictable cash flows, and often anchor liability-matching portfolios. A commission that freezes rates, trims allowed returns or delays cost recovery turns that predictability into political risk, and that risk now differs sharply by state. How costs are shared matters as much as the total: heavier large-load tariffs move value from hyperscaler margins towards households.
There is a countervailing case. Campaign promises often fade inside the commission process, and large-load tariffs can make utility cash flows safer rather than riskier, by tying data-centre customers to the cost of the capacity built for them. In Georgia, the commission froze energy rates through 2028 last year, which limits how much a new majority could change in the near term. “The grid is America’s greatest machine, and it doesn’t operate on the political calendar,” said Drew Maloney, president of the Edison Electric Institute.
What to watch
“I do think the real meat will come after the election,” Hua said. Three things to follow:
- 3 November: two seats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission, in Districts 3 and 5, on a commission with a 3-2 Republican majority, according to Ballotpedia.
- Arizona: Arizona Public Service is seeking a 14% rate increase and Tucson Electric Power 13%, Politico reported, so the commission races bear directly on two large pending rate cases.
- North Carolina: the Utilities Commission’s final decision on Duke Energy’s large-load settlement, and whether it adds the conditions Stein wants.
Sources
- Should data centers do more to pay their way? Stein backs new rules on electrical bills, WRAL, 27 October 2026
- Power bills, data centers cast spotlight on utilities in U.S. election, Reuters (via Honolulu Star-Advertiser), 31 October 2026
- Data centers turn sleepy utility races into political battlegrounds, Politico (via Yahoo News), 31 October 2026
- Table 5.6.A. Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State, August 2026 and 2025, US Energy Information Administration, 23 October 2026
- What drove record-breaking utility rate requests in Q3 2026?, PowerLines, 7 October 2026
- Partisan control of Georgia Public Service Commission at stake in November election, Ballotpedia News, 10 August 2026
- Georgia Public Service Commission election, 2026, Ballotpedia, accessed 1 November 2026