Big Tech's Data Centers Are Driving Up Power Bills for America's Rust Belt Factories

The Rust Belt Is Subsidizing the AI Boom Through Its Power Bill

A 141-year-old brick manufacturer in Sugarcreek, Ohio — whose products are in the Alamo and Notre Dame University — saw its electricity costs surge 90% last year. The main driver was a monthly capacity charge that jumped from $1,600/month to $12,000/month.

The culprit isn't fuel prices or inflation. It's data centers. A new Reuters investigation documents how AI-driven data center construction in the PJM grid region is pushing capacity prices — and factory power bills — to levels that threaten the viability of American manufacturing.

A 1,038% Increase in Capacity Prices

PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid operator, covers a 13-state Mid-Atlantic and Midwest manufacturing belt from New Jersey to northern Illinois, reaching as far south as Tennessee. Five of the eight emerging U.S. data center hubs are in this Rust Belt region, according to Synergy Research Group.

PJM's capacity prices — fees paid to power generators to guarantee enough electricity for peak usage — jumped from $28.92 per megawatt-day in 2024 to $329.17 per megawatt-day today. That's a 1,038% increase in two years, driven primarily by data center growth.

As a result, industrial electricity prices are climbing far faster in manufacturing-heavy states than the national average. According to Reuters' analysis of U.S. Energy Department data, as of December 2025:

• Pennsylvania: industrial prices up 31% year-over-year (vs. 7% nationwide)
• Ohio: industrial prices up 26% year-over-year
• Residential customers in those same states saw increases of only 14% and 9%, respectively

Capacity charges generally account for about 10% of residential bills but can represent up to three times that share for manufacturers, who use large amounts of electricity on thin margins.

"There Are Going To Be Some Companies On The Razor's Edge"

Belden Brick president Brad Belden — part of the fifth generation at the company — said the company has already raised brick prices by 4% and still seen profits shrink. If power bills keep rising, he warns, manufacturers will quickly run out of room to cut costs or raise prices.

"That capacity charge just jumped off the page. There are going to be some companies that are on the razor's edge."
— Brad Belden, Belden Brick Company

Plaskolite, a plastic products manufacturer, saw capacity charges at its combined Pennsylvania and Ohio facilities jump from $200,000 a year to $1.2 million annually. The company is now considering abandoning the grid entirely and powering its operations with a direct natural gas feed. "Electricity has become the highest-drama form of energy," said senior environmental director Timothy Ling.

Grove City, Ohio–based Tosoh SMD, which produces materials used in electronics, is considering moving production to the graveyard shift — when electricity is cheaper — just to stay competitive. "We're trying to be as creative as possible just to maintain competitiveness," said director of facilities and maintenance John Holeman.

The Grid Can't Keep Up

Data centers, said PJM spokesperson Jeff Shields, "can be built faster than the generation needed to serve them, driving up demand faster than supply." The consequence isn't just higher bills — it's grid instability. PJM was forced to take emergency steps the week of June 30, asking some users to curb electricity use to prevent rolling blackouts as heat pushed peak demand to a new record.

Even Paul Cicio, president of the trade group Industrial Energy Consumers of America, warned: "This can have short- and long-term impacts on whether or not these facilities can continue to operate."

Rules Meant For Big Tech Are Sweeping Up Small Factories

The damage is being compounded by regulatory whiplash. At least 10 U.S. states have pending rules aimed at managing electricity demand from data centers, according to data from the nonprofit Smart Electric Power Alliance and NC State's Clean Energy Technology Center. But because manufacturers are classified in the same electricity-rate class as data centers, those rules are catching small factories in rules written for hyperscalers like Meta and Amazon — whose power needs can dwarf even large manufacturers by a factor of 50.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also proposing that large energy users with onsite generation pay transmission charges for that onsite power, too — a rule aimed at data centers that manufacturing advocates are now appealing for exemptions from. As Cicio put it plainly: "Manufacturers are not data centers."

The Real Cost of the Cloud

The data center industry's own trade group, the Data Center Coalition, frames the price spikes as the cost of finally investing in the grid. Vice president of energy Aaron Tinjum said the boom is "making us finally grapple with the difficult decisions that we were always going to have to face." But those "difficult decisions" are being paid for by a 141-year-old brickmaker in Ohio, a plastics manufacturer in Pennsylvania, and an electronics-materials producer working the night shift in Grove City.

The AI boom does not pay its own way. It is being subsidized — quietly, through the monthly power bill — by the factories, and the workers, and the communities that were there first. Every new server warehouse is a new draw on a grid that was not built for it, and every capacity-charge hike is a tax on American manufacturing that no one voted for.

The cloud is not weightless. In Sugarcreek, Ohio, it shows up as a $10,400-a-month increase on a brickmaker's bill.

Source: Reuters — "Big Tech data centers are driving up power bills for America's Rust Belt factories" (July 7, 2026).