Proposed regional data center expansions threaten to consume more electricity than all residential customers in Alabama, raising questions about grid cost allocation.

WESTOVER, Ala. — Shannon Vanden Heuvel doesn’t believe a word they say. A marketing designer and proud mother, she has watched what feels like endless television advertisements from Alabama Power, the state’s largest electric utility and an effective monopoly across much of Alabama. The ads claim the company has made a firm commitment to customers like her. As data center developers eye Alabama in droves, the utility has been clear about one thing: Don’t worry about your power bills. They won’t rise because of data centers.

Whether Alabama Power can actually keep that promise remains an open question. The answer—a consequential one in its service area, where average residential electricity bills are the highest in the nation—is buried in regulatory filings and secretive contracts, often obscured by heavy redactions or non-disclosure agreements signed by public officials. A new Inside Climate News analysis documents at least a dozen proposed data center developments across the state, stretching from Bessemer to the Black Belt. If built to full capacity, these campuses would consume more electricity than all of Alabama’s homes combined. But who will foot the bill?

Part of the answer may hinge on the outcome of the state Public Service Commission’s effort to implement SB 270, a law enacted this year requiring the commission to evaluate whether a utility’s contract with a data center developer serves the public interest. While the statute leaves the ultimate determination to the PSC, it outlines several “specific considerations” for approving large-load contracts, including whether “the pricing and terms and conditions of the contract could lower costs for other customers of the utility.” SB 270 also directs the PSC to assess whether Alabama Power’s contracts recover all incremental costs from data center operators. These are defined as “the generation, transmission, distribution, sale, or furnishing of electricity to a large load data center customer, including fuel costs and taxes, which the utility would not incur but for the large load data center customer contract.”

Experts caution that whether this new law provides meaningful protections for Alabamians concerned about rising energy bills will depend heavily on how the PSC implements the statute, which takes effect Oct. 1. Commissioners and staff are currently reviewing public comments on how exactly the law will be enforced. “How much SB 270 actually ends up protecting customers is fully dependent on how the PSC enforces the law,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit advocating for clean energy in the state. “I don’t think the public has a reason to trust Alabama Power when it comes to protecting them from costs, but they should look to the Public Service Commission to step in and hold the power company to its word.”

Vanden Heuvel fears she already knows the answer. She believes residents like herself will shoulder the burden of hyperscale data centers, such as the one proposed near her home in Westover, a town of just over 2,000 people southeast of Birmingham. Regarding Alabama Power’s assurances, “It is one thousand percent a PR move to quell everyone’s concerns,” she said. “They want to shut people up long enough to move these data centers in. Then they’re here, and it’s already too late.” Alabama Power did not respond to Inside Climate News’ request for comment.

For more than a year, residents across Alabama have watched as developers rushed to secure sites offering ample power, water, and land. While some facilities are relatively small—comparable to pre-AI boom data centers—others are massive, requiring hundreds of acres, millions of gallons of water, and more power than entire cities. An Inside Climate News review of federal, state, and local records has documented more than a dozen proposed data centers statewide, including multiple so-called hyperscale developments that some officials have called the largest private investments in state history. Meanwhile, residents continue to ask: Who will really benefit?

Project Marvel, a proposed data center campus in Bessemer just southwest of Birmingham, is slated to consume 90 times more energy than all Bessemer residences combined. Despite serious environmental concerns raised by residents, public officials approved the necessary rezoning, greenlighting the clear-cutting of at least 100 acres previously zoned for agricultural use. Residents living nearby now brace for up to a decade of construction to complete the development, which will feature 17 buildings the size of Walmart Supercenters.

Farther south in the state’s Black Belt, another developer has outlined plans for a campus featuring four 720,000-square-foot buildings, a 100,000-square-foot warehouse, and a 30,000-square-foot office. Nearly universally opposed by the county’s majority-Black residents, the Project Red Clay facility would be constructed along Highway 80, just over a mile from the Robert Gardner farm in Lowndes County—the same location where protesters camped overnight during the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march. Representatives of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, the developer, have publicly stated that the company requested 1,500 megawatts of energy capacity from Alabama Power and up to 100,000 gallons of water per day from the Pintlala Water System, a small rural utility. If realized, that single project would generate enough energy to supply roughly a million homes and sufficient water for hundreds more.

In Bessemer, Lowndes County, and beyond, residents have found it nearly impossible to obtain detailed information about projects they fear could harm their communities. In Bessemer and Columbiana—the seat of the state’s wealthiest county—this difficulty stems partly from public officials signing non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from sharing information developers deem confidential. In Bessemer, the NDA signed by the mayor, city attorney, and at least one economic development official required city officials to destroy all copies of developer-confidential information when the agreement expired or whenever the developer requested. This included notes taken by city officials about the project, according to the agreement’s text.

In Westover, a 40-minute drive from Birmingham, residents had heard rumors about a planned data center for months, but local officials rebuffed questions, insisting no such project was underway. In early August, residents including Vanden Heuvel independently obtained records from the county probate office documenting a “conceptual zoning plan” for a massive, 14-building hyperscale campus. “I was pissed when we found the map [of the proposed data center],” Vanden Heuvel, 40, told Inside Climate News. “If our public officials weren’t doing anything wrong, why has it all been done in secret?”

Across these communities, one concern has surfaced repeatedly: the fear that already rising electric bills will soar further due to data center development. “I know that’s what’s coming,” said Mary Rosenboom, a resident near the proposed Project Marvel site, in a previous interview with ICN. “And it’ll be us that foot the bill. It’s not good for the citizens. It’s good for Alabama Power’s pocketbook.” To combat these concerns, Alabama Power has launched a statewide advertising blitz, with broadcast and digital campaigns promising that data centers would not increase residential rates.