DATA CENTERS and LG&E-KU
Don't get stuck holding the bag! Speak up!
Your comments are needed to the Ky. Public Service Commission regarding LG&E-KU's request to spend $2.8 Billion on two new power plants and more of our money to extend the life of an old, coal-fired plant, all in hopes that hyper-scale data centers will locate here.
Hyper-scale data-center developers are shaking down states across the US for the most profitable sites for their facilities. And because those data centers use HUGE amounts of power, utilities are working hard to locate data centers within their service areas.
You could be forced to pay for the utilities' gambles.
Please review the arguments, below, then tell the PSC in your own words why you want it to deny the utilities speculative request, and instead protect your interests and our climate, rather than hypothetical, for-profit hyper-data centers and the coal industry.
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PLEASE submit your views to the PSC as soon as practical, ideally NLT noon on Monday, August 3rd, via email to psc.comment@ky.gov
Include "Case #2025-00045" in your subject line, and your contact information in the body of your email. Say whether you're a customer of LG&E or KU; if you're neither, you might mention whether you work for, go to school at or do business with an LG&E-KU customer. Copy LCAN if you'd like, using the address from which you received our e-newsletter.
Ask your family and friends to do the same. your ​​
Who Picks Up Whose Tab?
LG&E-KU say they don't need new plants for us. (Even with electrification, their customers are using energy efficiency and solar panels to cut their power use.) They say they want to build new plants for the data centers they hope will locate here. But if the data centers don't come, we'll be stuck with the cost of the new plants plus a return-on-equity.
Where's the Beef?
LG&E-KU admit they have no signed contracts with hyper-scale data center developers. Maybe it's a chicken-or-the-egg question, but existing customers must be protected from gambles. The average residential customer in Columbus, OH, is paying an extra $27/month due to data centers!
Technology Changes Quickly
Power plants operate for at least 40 years. New data-storage technology is trending toward using less power. Building two plants and keeping an old one (due to be retired) online for older computing technologies makes no sense -- unless you're guaranteed a profit, as are LG&E-KU. The last time they had excess capacity, they used it to justify killing rebates.
What's in It for Us?
The majority of the Kentucky legislature, seeking to prop up the coal industry, voted to give big tax breaks to this energy intensive, hyper-mobile industry that creates relatively few jobs and can downsize or move if it gets a better deal elsewhere. They don't even make convincing claims of property taxes going to our local goverments and schools.
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