This adds some credence to the data center argument about how much power they consume. As more have been built, electricity costs are creeping up past the rate of inflation. Of course, the higher electric bills you are paying may be due more to rapid growth in an area where you live and the costs to build additional infrastructure to handle the demands of additional residents and businesses. This I believe is the driving factor in the increase in my electric bills living in Wake County, North Carolina which is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the nation.
My electric bill has almost doubled compared to the previous year during 2026. Getting a new HVAC unit recently has cut it down to about where it was before. That being said, there were a lot of my friends and neighbors who got sticker shock when they saw their utility bills this past summer.