The position, pressed before state utility regulators, reflects growing concern that the rapid buildout of power-intensive data centers could push up bills for households and small businesses across the commonwealth. Utility executives said the costs of new generation, transmission and distribution capacity needed to serve these facilities should be assigned to the developers who are driving the demand.

Data centers, which house rows of servers supporting cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads, consume far more electricity than typical commercial customers. As developers scout sites across Kentucky for new facilities, the question of who pays for the grid upgrades has become a central issue in the state's energy policy debate.

Utility leaders framed the proposal as a matter of fairness: customers who did not create the demand should not absorb its costs. The approach would shift responsibility onto the large corporate users whose projects require substantial new investment in the power system.

The debate carries significant stakes for Kentucky communities. Supporters of data center development point to construction jobs and new local tax revenue, while critics warn that the facilities can strain the grid, drive up electricity prices and deliver fewer permanent jobs than promised.

State regulators will ultimately decide how those costs are allocated, a decision that could shape both the pace of data center development in Kentucky and the electricity bills that residents and small businesses pay in the years ahead.