Analysis: APS customers paid $587 million for data center sector growth. APS denies claim.
Amid a data center boom, Arizona’s largest for-profit power company APS says that “growth pays for growth.”
The pledge means that as new data centers and microchip plants hook onto Arizona’s power grid, those companies are paying for additional infrastructure and electricity necessary to serve them.
Not small businesses. Not homeowners.
But an expert-reviewed analysis of APS financial records suggests the motto does not deliver. The "cost shift" model shows homeowners and businesses paid $587 million for costs associated with the rapidly growing "large load" sector between 2023-2025.
According to the analysis, APS is purchasing increasingly higher amounts of power each year from outside sellers — often at a premium — to meet new demand that is primarily driven by data centers and other large load customers.
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