Pledge to not raise bills near data centers
Posted/updated on: July 24, 2026 at 3:32 am
TYLER – The Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) publicly committed on Thursday to not raising customers’ electricity bills because of new AI data center construction. Their commitment comes as the power company signed on to the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a five-part agreement that President Donald Trump’s administration has put together to try and diminish the threat that data centers could have on residents’ power bills.
The Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) provides power to much of East Texas, northwest Louisiana and western Arkansas, and as a part of this agreement they’ve committed to negotiating separate power prices for data centers in those areas.
SWEPCO President and chief operating officer Brett Mattison said their signing of the pledge reflects their belief that “growth should pay for growth” without raising their customer’s power bills, which is one of many concerns surrounding data center development.
“As our region grows, new businesses bring jobs, investment, and opportunities to our communities. They also require new energy infrastructure. Our commitment is that large customers should pay the costs needed to serve them, helping protect residential and business customers while supporting a stronger, more reliable electric system,” Mattison said.
The Cass County Electric Cooperative, Houston County Electric Cooperative and the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative have also signed on to the White House pledge.
On top of the commitments from power companies, data center developers, like CyrusOne, who’ve signed the pledge are committing to covering the costs of upgrading power infrastructure to feed their facilities and to supplying or paying for their own new power generation resources.
“America’s continued economic and technological leadership depends on reliable, large-scale data center infrastructure built here at home. Data center infrastructure is the foundation of the Internet, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, and supports our economic and national security,” the pledge reads. “As that infrastructure grows and the related electricity demand increases, the American people should not be footing the bill for the benefit of private companies. Instead, the data center boom should be leveraged to address affordability and benefit all American households and businesses.”
Developers who’ve signed the pledge have also committed to investing in the communities where they’re building the data centers and making their own backup power facilities available when needed to help prevent blackouts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and several other state governors also pledged to implement the White House’s five-part agreement at the state level.
