# Musk says AI is cutting your power bill. The data says no

> Elon Musk pointed to one Georgia contract to claim data centers lower electricity prices. National price data tells a different story.
- Title: Musk says AI is cutting your power bill. The data says no
- Summary: Elon Musk pointed to one Georgia contract to claim data centers lower electricity prices. National price data tells a different story. AI data centers are…
- Keywords: energy, electricity prices, data centers, utilities, business, finance, Musk, cutting, power, bill, data, Yahoo Finance
- Source: Yahoo Finance — https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/elon-musk-says-ai-data-154530863.html
- Published: 2026-09-14T15:45:30+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: ai, energy, electricity prices, data centers, utilities, business, finance
## The claim goes viral
On Monday morning Musk told his audience that AI data centers are lowering consumer electricity prices, citing a post about Georgia Power savings. It reached over 503,000 impressions.

> AI data centers resulting in lower electricity prices for consumers
## It's becoming a talking point
Twelve days earlier, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said the same thing on CNBC: net electricity prices will be lower once data centers arrive. The argument is spreading fast.
## Prices went up, not down
The electricity CPI hit 305.444 in August 2026, up about 4.1% from September 2025. Headline inflation rose 3.4% over the same stretch. Power is outrunning it.
## Nearly a record per kilowatt-hour
The U.S. average price reached 19.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2026, up from 18.8 cents a year earlier, with a June peak of 19.8 cents near a series record.
## Forecasts already saw it coming
The EIA projected residential rates averaging 18.2 cents in 2026, nearly 5% above 2025. East Coast regions are running 5% to 7% annual growth, partly from spending to meet rising demand.
## Southern's data center boom
Georgia Power's parent reported data center usage 55% above Q2 2025, plus a 3.2 gigawatt, 25-year deal with OpenAI near Savannah. Its contracted pipeline tops 17 gigawatts by the mid-2030s.
## Households use less, pay more
In the same quarter, Southern's residential kilowatt-hour sales fell 1.5% while commercial sales, the data center bucket, jumped 7.3%. CEO Chris Womack calls it a rate-stability story.
## Wholesale prices are the tailwind
Vistra told investors ERCOT wholesale prices ran $30 per megawatt hour and equipment costs have doubled or tripled. Its Q2 adjusted EBITDA still jumped over 30% to $1.77 billion.

> $30 is not going to get new stuff built
## Even the trade stopped paying
Vistra shares are down 30.21% over the past year and 11.95% year to date at $141.63. Southern Company is up just 2.12% for the year.
## Who actually pays for the build
That $180 figure applies to one contract structure at one regional utility, far from bills in New Jersey, Ohio, or California. New generation from the Georgia and Alabama RFPs lands in a rate base ratepayers fund.
## Key takeaway

AI data centers are pushing wholesale and retail power prices up, not down. The $180 savings figure comes from one utility's contract structure, not from bills across the country.