Residents in areas with data centers foot more of the bill for increased electricity costs, according to a new report by nonpartisan think tank Think Tennessee.
The report released Tuesday is the first of a two-part series analyzing the impact of data centers on Tennessee communities.
According to the report, Tennessee residents living near data centers saw on average a 3.2-percent increase on their electricity bills between 2023 and 2024, whereas commercial consumers, such as data centers, saw their electricity bills decrease by 0.2 percent. Increases in Tennessee regions home to data centers outstripped increases in other parts of the state. Areas home to data centers saw a 1.6-percent increase between 2023 and 2024, while the statewide average was 1.3 percent…