Don't approve PPL Electric rate increase. Customers shouldn't get an increase for AI electric demand.

A letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission objecting to existing customers getting an increase that pays for data center demand.

February 18, 2026

Pennsylvania Utility Commission
P.O. Box 3265
Harrisburg, PA 18036

Dear Commissioners:

Regarding PPL Electric Utility Corporation electric distribution rate increase request, the requested increase is excessive.

The request is asking for 11.3% return on equity (ROE), which is an insane request. ROE at these levels is in line with well run fully public firms that do not rely on a regulated monopoly. The current ROE is in line with other regulated electric utilities.

The second aspect of the rate increase that is objectionable is the forecast of demand. It is also insane to pass distribution cost associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) data center demand to the customer base which has already capitalized the distribution system – consumers and business customers.

If the mania over building massive data centers for AI is not a bubble, the firms associated with the new demand should entirely bear the costs of all transmissions, distribution, and generation for the monstrous loads they are forecasting. These costs should not be paid by existing customers.

The electricity demand for these data centers will evaporate as the industry moves toward Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) specifically designed and manufactured for inference loads. This is what happened with Bitcoin mining. Alphabet is already making and using ASICs for AI inference.

You can, if you like, review my rant about the data center bubble. This is information that I sent to my Federal and State Representatives: https://www.verbalprimate.com/like-sheep-to-slaughter-government-and-the-ai-conundrum/

First, thank you for taking adequate time to consider PPL’s request given the uncertainty of AI demand. Second thank you for considering my perspective.

Sincerely

PS As a consumer, am disturbed that we are not seeing renewable energy at lower prices given its cost of production is lower and am disturbed that AI data centers are driving cost increases. It is disheartening to lower our demand and pay higher prices year over year.