Wisconsin residents are protected from higher utility bills because state regulators require data centers to pay the full costs of the electricity infrastructure needed to serve them. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin has approved specialized tariffs that prevent those costs from being shifted onto households and small businesses. In 2026, the PSC strengthened these protections by requiring large data centers to enter long-term service agreements and cover 100 percent of the generation, transmission, and delivery costs associated with their operations. As a result, regulators have made clear that data centers must “pay their own way,” ensuring existing ratepayers are not responsible for subsidizing new development.

Data centers seem to be popping up everywhere because our economy is becoming increasingly digital. Every online activity—from streaming video and video calls to cloud computing, online banking, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence—depends on data centers to process, store, and transmit information. 

The average person uses artificial intelligence far more often than they may realize. Every time you use a smartphone assistant, receive personalized recommendations on Netflix or Spotify, get directions that avoid traffic, filter spam emails, or use many online tools, AI is working behind the scenes. AI also powers fraud detection for credit card transactions, predictive text and autocorrect, online shopping recommendations, and many customer service tools. Increasingly, AI is becoming a productivity tool. Students use it to help research topics and summarize information. Professionals use it to draft emails, analyze data, create presentations, write code, and automate routine tasks. Small business owners use AI to create marketing content, manage customer inquiries, and improve operations without hiring additional staff. AI is also transforming healthcare and public services. It helps doctors analyze medical images, supports emergency response systems, improves weather forecasting, and assists researchers in developing new medicines. While most people never directly see these systems, they benefit from faster, more accurate decisions and services. In simple terms, AI is becoming a lot like electricity or the internet: a technology that quietly powers countless everyday activities, often without people realizing it’s there.

In many ways, data centers today are what power plants, railroads, and highways were to earlier generations: critical infrastructure that supports economic growth and daily life. As households and communities increasingly rely on cloud services, remote work, digital healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and AI technologies, the need for data centers will continue to grow alongside the digital economy.