Protecting people and planet with renewable energy and affordable powerEnergy matters.

Grid Justice Law represents ratepayers, communities and clean energy advocates before utility commissions, lawmakers and courts. We work to keep AI data centers and utility overreach from pushing their costs onto households and small businesses, and to open the grid to rooftop solar, storage and community microgrids.

Free tools

Tools for ratepayers and communities

Check your bill, see what is driving rates, compare going off-grid with staying on the utility, model a community-owned grid, and score how resilient your home or town is. All free, no sign-up.

The off-grid comparison and the resilience scorecard were built with Think B.I.G. Hawaiʻi, a Big Island nonprofit; the scorecard opens on its site.

Electricity rate affordability

Power rates have roughly doubled. They don’t have to keep climbing.

Electricity has become one of the fastest-rising costs for western households. The increases come from choices regulators make: what utilities may build, how much they may earn on it, and who pays. Different choices can bring bills down.

Residential rate increases since 2014

California’s three big utilities, January 2014 to June 2026, compared with inflation

Source: Cal Advocates, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report (July 2026), slide 9. Residential average rates, excluding the Climate Credit; inflation is CPI-U. PG&E’s rate peaked in 2024 and has since come down.

What’s driving the increases

What the state’s own reports show, and where the numbers are contested

19%Share of PG&E’s 2026 revenue requirement that is wildfire-related (14% at SCE and SDG&E), for mitigation, insurance and the Wildfire Fund. In 2024 the CPUC put PG&E’s share at about 27%.1,2
2×Growth in what utilities collect for their local distribution grids, which more than doubled from 2016 to 2025. Leaving out wildfire work, it has grown about 11% a year since 2019, and utilities earn a guaranteed return on it.2
DisputedRooftop solar. The CPUC says it shifted about $7 billion to non-solar customers in 2024. An analysis by M.Cubed, commissioned by the solar industry, found rooftop solar instead saved customers about $2.3 billion that year.2,3
2.4MUtility customers behind on their bills at PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, about 1 in 5, owing $619 on average (May 2026)1
  1. Cal Advocates, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report, slides 4 and 11
  2. CPUC, 2025 SB 695 Report (Sept. 2025)
  3. Canary Media on the M.Cubed study (Nov. 2024)

What to do about it

Make data centers pay their own way

Require clean, self-supplied power and dedicated large-load tariffs, so the next wave of grid spending isn’t added to household bills.

Large-load tariffs, BYOG conditions, stranded-asset protection

Test big spending against cheaper options

Before ratepayers fund undergrounding or new transmission, commissions should compare it with microgrids, storage and local solar that can do the job for less.

Alternatives analysis in wildfire and transmission plans

Build storage and distributed energy at scale

Batteries and local resources cut peak demand and defer grid upgrades. Our modeling finds that about 50 GW of storage in California by 2035 could lower average rates by roughly a third.

Grid Justice Law analysis, Nov. 2025 (projection)

Lower the cost of utility capital

Challenge authorized returns that exceed what investors need, and finance suitable infrastructure through lower-cost public tools.

Cost of capital proceedings

Design rates that reward self-reliance

Oppose high fixed charges and export cuts that punish customers who conserve, add solar or share it with renters.

Rate design, net metering, community solar

Protect the households hit hardest

Expand bill assistance, stop shutoffs for families in arrears, and open clean energy programs to renters and low-income customers.

Low-income programs, energy burden, consumer protection

Households

Run your bill through our bill check, ask your utility whether you qualify for CARE or FERA discounts, and get quotes for solar with battery storage.

Cities and community groups

Utility commission proceedings are open to public participation, and California pays intervenor compensation to eligible parties. We can help you take part.

Bill check · California

What’s really on your electric bill?

Enter your bill, or drop in the PDF, and see where the money goes, what each kilowatt-hour really costs you, and what you could save. Works for PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, LADWP and SMUD customers. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.

1

Your utility

2

Your bill

Use this period’s electric charges, not a total that includes gas or past-due amounts. Leave kWh blank if you only know the dollars.

Most homes use 20–30% of their power in the evening peak. Your utility’s online account shows your real split.

Example bill shown. Replace it with yours.

Your bill in plain English

Line by line

Where each dollar goes

Ways to save

What could lower this bill

Why it’s this high

Your rate isn’t an accident. It’s a decision.

Commissions and utility boards decide what utilities may spend and who pays. Wildfire costs, transmission buildout and now AI data centers are pushing rates up. Ratepayers can push back in commission proceedings and public comment.

Energy independence

When does it make sense to leave the grid?

Solar panels and batteries have gotten so cheap that, for some homes, being your own power utility now costs less than paying one. Tell us a few things about your place and we’ll compare three choices over 20 years: the utility alone, the utility plus solar and a battery, and going fully off-grid.

About your place

Sets your sunshine (especially in the cloudiest month), typical utility prices and available tax credits.
On your bill. Many homes use 400–700 kWh a month. Our bill check can estimate it.
Compare keeping your connection with cutting the cord.
A generator that runs a few days a year lets you buy far fewer panels and batteries.
How many sunless days the batteries alone should carry you.
Owner-installed uses current market prices for panels, batteries and inverters with you installing. Licensed installer covers a contractor doing the whole job.
Prices and assumptions (edit to match your quotes)

Planning estimates for late 2026, not quotes. Get two or three bids before you decide. Sun-hour figures are approximate; check your address with NREL’s PVWatts calculator. Permits and interconnection rules apply either way.

What each choice costs over 20 years

Running total, including upfront costs, bills, fuel, upkeep and one battery replacement

When off-grid makes sense

  • You’re far from the grid. If a new line would cost more than a solar-and-battery system, off-grid usually wins on day one.
  • Your use is modest and steady. Efficient homes under about 600 kWh a month need smaller, cheaper systems.
  • You get winter sun. Sunny inland and southern sites need far less equipment than foggy or rainy ones.
  • You value staying powered. Off-grid homes keep their lights on through storms, wildfire shutoffs and grid emergencies.

When to keep the utility tie

  • You’re already connected and use a lot of power: a grid-tied system with a battery often gives you most of the savings and backup for less.
  • Your winters are dark and you don’t want a generator: off-grid then needs a lot of extra panels and batteries.
  • You plan to add big loads such as two EVs or central air.
  • Check the rules first: building and electrical permits apply either way, and some lenders and insurers ask about off-grid homes.

How this works. Off-grid systems are sized for the cloudiest month: panels = daily use ÷ (winter sun hours × 78% efficiency), less 15% with a generator or plus 20% without one; batteries = daily use × backup days ÷ 92%. The grid-tied option sizes panels to about 90% of yearly use plus one 13.5 kWh battery, and assumes solar covers 80% of the power you buy, since export credits under California’s Net Billing Tariff and Hawaiʻi’s Smart DER rules are low. Costs run 20 years with utility rates rising each year and batteries and inverters replaced once around year 12. Hawaiʻi locations include the state’s 35% renewable energy tax credit (up to $5,000 for a home system); the federal homeowner solar credit ended for systems installed after 2025, and California has no state solar tax credit. Utility rates are typical late-2026 residential prices and can be edited. Estimates to start a conversation, not financial or legal advice. Adapted from a free tool by Think B.I.G. Hawaiʻi.

AI data centers

Why AI data centers could explode rates even more

A single hyperscale AI campus can draw as much power as a mid-sized city, around the clock. Utilities are racing to build the plants and power lines to serve them. Under today’s rules, much of that cost can be spread across every customer’s bill, and households keep paying even if the data center never shows up or leaves early.

Step 1

A developer requests huge new load

Hundreds of megawatts per site, often on aggressive timelines and with forecasts that may never materialize.

Step 2

The utility builds or buys capacity

New generation, substations and transmission, plus higher prices in capacity markets as demand tightens supply.

Step 3

Costs go into everyone’s rates

Infrastructure enters the rate base and earns the utility a return for decades, recovered from all customer classes.

Step 4

Ratepayers hold the risk

If the load shrinks, moves or never arrives, the stranded assets stay on household and small business bills.

California first

California just wrote the rules. Now they have to be enforced.

~10 GW

Of new data center load seeking service from PG&E alone, roughly the output of ten large nuclear reactors.

PG&E large-load pipeline, 2025
New law · SB 886 & AB 2383

Data centers must pay their own way

Signed Sept. 21, 2026. The CPUC must adopt data center tariffs by Jan. 1, 2028: data centers pay for the transmission upgrades and new generation they trigger, with long-term payment commitments, collateral and early exit fees. The threshold can be no higher than 25 MW.

Stoel Rives summary
CPUC · PG&E Rule 30 · A.24-11-007

Who pays for the big hookups

The CPUC approved interim use of PG&E’s Rule 30, so new transmission-level customers pay upfront for the transmission facilities built to serve them. It is the likely home for the new interconnection tariff.

CPUC · R.26-04-009

Where the generation tariff gets written

The Advanced Electric Rate Design rulemaking is the likely venue for the data center generation tariff. Grid Justice Law is a party, pressing for clean, ratepayer-neutral supply. The CPUC’s SB 57 cost-shift report is due Jan. 1, 2027.

Courts are weighing in too: in September a judge halted the Imperial County data center over skipped CEQA review. Read our post →

The fix: Bring Your Own Generation

If you build it, you power it.

Clean BYOG means data centers supply their own power from clean, additional resources, and stay ratepayer-neutral for anything they still draw from the grid.

It applies cost causation to the biggest new loads on the grid. The companies profiting from AI pay for the power it uses, instead of families and small businesses.

  • Self-supply with new clean power

    On-site or contracted generation and storage that is additional to the grid, not a claim on resources other customers already pay for.

  • A dedicated large-load tariff

    A separate customer class that pays the full cost of any grid service, upgrade or backup power it uses.

  • Stranded-asset protection

    Long-term contracts, minimum bills, collateral and exit fees, so households never inherit the cost of an abandoned campus.

  • Flexibility in emergencies

    Data centers curtail or switch to their own supply first during grid shortages, before any household loses power.

  • No secret contracts

    Special contracts and cost allocations filed in public dockets, open to review by ratepayer advocates.

Hawai‘i data centers

Getting ahead of data centers in Hawai‘i

Hawai‘i has no hyperscale data centers yet, and no current proposals. It also has the highest electricity rates in the country, small island grids and a 100% renewable target for 2045. A single large campus could change all three. Policymakers are moving to set the rules first.

Hawai‘i County · Bill 170

A proposed ban on large data centers

Introduced by Councilmember Heather Kimball, the bill defines “data center” and leaves it out of the county’s permitted uses. The Windward Planning Commission recommended against it over its definition; on Oct. 15, 2026 the Leeward Planning Commission unanimously recommended it and urged a moratorium while rules are developed. It now goes to the County Council.

West Hawaii Today · Civil Beat
State Legislature · SR 90 (2026)

A state working group on ratepayer protection

The State Energy Office is convening a working group, including the PUC, to study data center impacts and options such as making developers pay the full cost of grid upgrades and requiring renewable power. Its report is due before the 2027 session.

Hawai‘i State Legislature
How we help

Clean BYOG for the islands

We provide policy analysis, model ordinance language and testimony to county councils, the Legislature and the PUC, drawing on California’s large-load proceedings. Any Hawai‘i litigation is handled with Hawai‘i-licensed co-counsel.

Other states

What the rest of the country is learning

Where data centers arrived first, the bills arrived with them. And some states have already put pieces of Bring Your Own Generation into law.

9×

Jump in PJM capacity prices in one auction, from $28.92 to $269.92 per MW-day. Total cost rose from $2.2 billion to $14.7 billion, driven largely by projected data center demand.

PJM 2025/26 Base Residual Auction
$14–37

Added to a typical Virginia household’s monthly bill by 2040 from the generation and transmission needed for data center growth.

Virginia JLARC, Data Centers in Virginia (2024)
40 of 41

Local ballot measures on Nov. 3, 2026 in which voters sided with limiting data centers, across ten states. Read our post →

Ballotpedia, Nov. 6, 2026

Where pieces of BYOG are already law elsewhere

Minnesota HF 16 · large-customer tariff, cost-shift ban, stranded-asset protection Texas SB 6 · large loads curtailed first in grid emergencies Utah SB 132 · direct supply contracts kept off other customers’ rates Ohio PUCO · data centers pay for most of the grid capacity they reserve

Why it has to be clean. Without that requirement, “bring your own generation” can mean private gas plants that sidestep state renewable standards, as Nevada regulators allowed in 2026. Clean BYOG protects ratepayers and the climate at the same time.

Data center lawsuits

Challenging data center projects in court and before regulators

Residents, towns and conservation groups across the country are going to court over hyperscale data centers. Most successful challenges don’t argue that data centers are bad. They show that a project was approved the wrong way, that its environmental review skipped real impacts, or that its power costs were quietly shifted onto everyone else’s bills.

01

Zoning and land-use procedure

Rezonings, variances and permits approved without the public hearings, notice or findings the law requires.

02

Open meetings and public records

Code-named projects, closed-door deals, undisclosed tax breaks and records requests that go unanswered.

03

Environmental review

CEQA and NEPA review that understates power demand, water for cooling, diesel backup generators, noise and emissions.

04

Utility commission cost shifts

Large-load tariffs, confidential special contracts and grid upgrades that would land on household and small business bills.

05

Ordinances and conditions of approval

Moratoria, zoning limits and enforceable conditions: clean self-supplied power, recycled cooling water, community benefits.

06

Public trust and agency inaction

Petitions to make agencies protect the air, water and climate they hold in trust for the public.

Recent challenges

  • Georgia, Sept. 2026. Effingham County residents sued over a zoning change for OpenAI’s “Project Camellia” campus, alleging it skipped required public hearings. A second suit challenges how the project and its tax break were handled at public meetings. Inside Climate News
  • Illinois, Aug. 2026. Lake County residents filed suit to block a 472-acre data center campus in Grayslake. Lake & McHenry County Scanner
  • Virginia, Nov. 2026. A lawsuit alleges public-records violations involving Botetourt County’s Google data center agreement. WSET
  • Massachusetts. Conservation Law Foundation is challenging a data center expansion in Lowell. CLF

These cases are listed for context. Grid Justice Law is not counsel in them.

A data center is proposed near you. What now?

  1. Move early. Some deadlines to challenge an approval run as short as 30 days.
  2. Get the record. Request agendas, staff reports, development agreements and utility filings.
  3. Speak on the record. Comments at hearings and in environmental review preserve issues for court.
  4. Follow the power. The utility’s large-load application is often where the biggest costs hide.
  5. Talk to counsel. We can assess the procedural, environmental and rate issues and coordinate with local land-use counsel.
Talk to us about a data center

The principle behind every case

One rule of ratemaking, applied to everyone.

Cost causation is basic utility law: whoever causes a cost should pay for it. Regulators already enforce it hard against families with rooftop solar. Our work is making them apply the same standard to the largest new loads on the grid.

Rooftop solar customer Strict scrutiny

  • Export credits cut to avoided-cost levels over claimed “cost shifts”
  • Fixed charges and interconnection fees to recover grid costs
  • Upgrade costs assigned to the customer who triggers them

Hyperscale data center Often socialized

  • Transmission and generation built for new load, recovered from all customers
  • Special contracts filed as confidential, out of public view
  • Stranded-asset risk left with ratepayers if the load leaves

Same principle. Same rules. No exemptions for Big Tech.

Community-owned power

Own the grid you pay for.

Investor-owned utilities earn a guaranteed return on what they build, so the money flows toward big plants and long power lines. Electric cooperatives and public utilities answer to their members and voters, not shareholders. They can choose rooftop solar, batteries and community microgrids whenever those cost less, and keep the savings at home. There is now enough data from cooperatives, city utilities and investor-owned utilities to compare these models side by side and estimate, with reasonable accuracy, which would serve your community best. And the math keeps moving toward local power: solar module prices have fallen about 20% with every doubling of installed capacity over more than four decades, a pattern known as Swanson’s Law, the solar version of the broader Wright’s Law of technology learning curves. Batteries are following a similar curve. We help communities that want to make the switch, and help them build the new utility around distributed energy from day one.

Hawai‘i · Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative 52.8% renewable power in 2025, second-highest in the state

Kaua‘i bought its utility, and its rates went from the highest in the state to the lowest

When the island’s Connecticut-based owner put Kaua‘i Electric up for sale, residents formed a cooperative and bought it in 2002 for $215 million, financed with low-interest federal Rural Utilities Service loans. Kaua‘i then paid the highest electricity prices in the state, roughly 70% more than O‘ahu. Every member gets one vote for the nine-member board.

  • In 2025 the average home price was 38.4¢ per kWh, below O‘ahu (40.5¢), Maui County (42.0¢) and Hawai‘i Island (45.8¢), in federal EIA data.
  • Fixed-price solar-and-storage contracts shield members from swings in oil prices.
  • $2.7 million in patronage capital returned to members after a strong 2025.
  • Aiming for 100% renewable power by 2033, twelve years ahead of the state’s 2045 mandate.
KIUC 2025 RPS release · The Garden Island · Kaua‘i Now · Civil Beat · EIA-861, 2025
California · Sacramento Municipal Utility District 18.9¢vs.37.5¢ average price per kWh for homes, all charges included, SMUD vs. PG&E, 2025 (federal EIA data)

Sacramento voted PG&E out, then fought for 23 years to make it stick

Sacramento voters created SMUD in 1923 under California’s Municipal Utility District Act. PG&E fought the takeover in court until the California Supreme Court turned away its last petition in 1946, and SMUD began service at the end of that year.

  • Now the nation’s sixth-largest community-owned electric utility.
  • A 750 kWh month cost $149 on SMUD and $290 on PG&E in June 2026, by SMUD’s own comparison, in line with the federal figures.
  • A plan to eliminate carbon from its power supply by 2030, fifteen years ahead of California’s 2045 target.
  • PG&E still spent millions in 2006 to defeat a vote to extend SMUD into Yolo County.
EIA-861, 2025 · SMUD rate comparison · SMUD history · 2030 Zero Carbon Plan

Both took years. Both were fought at every step by the company that owned the wires. Both now charge less than the investor-owned utilities around them, and both are moving faster on clean energy than state law requires.

Paths to community ownership

Four ways to take back the grid

Member-owned

Electric cooperative

Customers own the utility and elect its board. A strong fit for islands and rural grids, and for moments when an owner wants to sell. Federal and cooperative lenders financed Kaua‘i’s purchase.

City-owned

Municipal utility

A city runs its own electric department, as Los Angeles and Palo Alto do. It buys the local distribution system by agreement or, if the utility refuses, through eminent domain at a price set by regulators or a court.

Voter-formed

Public utility district

A regional public agency created by a vote of residents, like SMUD. It can span several cities and unincorporated areas, which helps with scale and financing.

First steps

Community choice and local microgrids

California’s community choice programs let cities buy cleaner power while the utility keeps the wires. Community microgrids show local generation can keep the lights on. Both build the case, and the know-how, for full ownership.

Built around distributed energy

A utility designed for rooftops, not just power lines.

A DER-first public utility plans from the meter up: local solar, batteries and flexible demand come first, and new transmission only when nothing closer can do the job.

With no shareholders to pay, there is no reward for overbuilding. The savings can go to lower rates, fair credit for customer solar and storage, and resilience for the communities that need it most.

  • Distribution-first planning

    Every new grid need gets a local-solution test before a central plant or long transmission line is approved.

  • Fair value for customer solar and batteries

    Export credits and storage programs set by the people who pay the bills, not by a company whose earnings grow with its rate base.

  • Batteries as a virtual power plant

    Member-owned batteries paid to support the grid at peak, cutting the need for new peaker plants.

  • Microgrids for critical places

    Fire stations, shelters, clinics and water systems that stay powered through shutoffs and storms.

  • Big new loads pay their own way

    Clean BYOG and cost causation written into the utility’s rules from the start, so a data center can’t raise members’ bills.

How we help

From first study to first bill

Step 1

Feasibility and valuation

What the local system is worth, how a purchase would be financed, and what rates would look like, compared honestly with staying put.

Step 2

Formation

The right legal structure, with bylaws, ordinances, ballot measures, formation filings and a governance plan members can trust.

Step 3

Acquisition

Negotiating a purchase, or litigating valuation and eminent domain before the utility commission and the courts, including fights over separation and stranded costs.

Step 4

Launch, DER-first

Tariffs, interconnection rules, resource plans and solar and storage programs built for a distributed grid from the first day.

California now

San Francisco has been asking the CPUC since 2021 to set a value for PG&E’s local grid; PG&E’s response to the city’s valuation was due Oct. 20, 2026. SB 875 (Wiener), which would have eased the path for cities in PG&E territory, stalled in a Senate committee in April 2026. The process is slow and the incumbent contests every step. That is a legal problem, and it is the kind we work on.

KQED · Manatt on SB 875

Hawai‘i

KIUC is still regulated by the Hawai‘i PUC, which shows co-op ownership and public oversight can work together. In 2015 the proposed Hawai‘i Island Energy Cooperative asked the PUC to consider a member-owned utility for the Big Island, managed at first by KIUC. Any Hawai‘i litigation is handled with Hawai‘i-licensed co-counsel.

West Hawaii Today · Utility Dive

Interactive model

Model your green energy utility grid

See how a typical California community’s grid could change once its customers own it. Over a decade or so, a community utility can build rooftop and carport solar, batteries and local renewables until the neighborhood grid supplies most of its own power. Gas, nuclear and imported power then serve mainly as backup for stormy winter weeks. Move the sliders to try your own plan. Every number is computed hour by hour, for every year from 2026 to 2045.

“DER Fusion” is the design this model starts from. Local solar, small wind and batteries, sited on rooftops, carports and neighborhood lots, supply most of the community’s energy, hour by hour. The regional grid and its power plants (gas, nuclear, imports) stay connected, but mainly as capacity and backup: for evening peaks, stormy winter weeks and emergencies, not as the everyday source.

How “DER Fusion” works

Local power first. The big grid as backup.

  1. 1
    Make power where people are

    Solar on homes, schools, warehouses and parking-lot canopies, plus small wind and run-of-river hydro where the site allows.

  2. 2
    Store it and shift it

    Home, neighborhood and substation batteries carry midday sun into the evening. EV charging and water heating move into sunny hours.

  3. 3
    Run it as one local grid

    The community’s distribution grid balances all of it, and can island as a microgrid to keep critical sites powered in an outage.

  4. 4
    Keep the big grid for backup

    The regional grid and its plants stay connected for capacity: evening peaks, long winter storms and emergencies. Not the everyday source.

Where the energy comes from

“DER Fusion” plan for a 50,000-home community at full buildout (), from the model below

A sunny June day

A January storm day

2038

Where your power comes from

Share of the year’s demand, by source

What power costs

All-in cost per kWh in 2026 dollars, including customer-owned solar and batteries

A week on your grid in

Hour-by-hour supply, megawatts

Show the numbers
How the model works, and its assumptions

The model runs a simplified hour-by-hour dispatch for all 8,760 hours of each year. Local solar, wind, hydro and geothermal serve demand first, then flexible demand shifts into sunny hours, then batteries charge and discharge, then biomass ramps up, and anything still unserved comes from the regional grid and backup plants. Weather comes from a typical inland California year, with a multi-day January storm and occasional cloudy winter spells. Costs are all-in community costs in 2026 dollars, including customer-owned solar and batteries, and are compared with staying on an investor-owned utility whose rates keep rising.

  • Starting point: about 35¢ per kWh, built up from a California IOU’s cost stack: distribution, wildfire mitigation, transmission, generation, legacy contracts and public-purpose programs. PG&E’s 2025 average was 37.5¢ in federal data.
  • Ownership: an IOU earns a 7.61% return on its rate base (CPUC D.25-12-043, 2026), plus income and property taxes. The model assumes a cooperative borrows at 4.75% through federal and cooperative lenders and pays property tax, and a public utility borrows at 4.25% with tax-exempt bonds. Both buy the local grid at the price set above, and both can offer on-bill financing for customer solar and batteries at close to their own borrowing cost.
  • Technology costs: solar from $2.60/W (California installed prices run $2.40–3.25/W in 2026), falling 2% a year; home batteries from $1,000/kWh and grid batteries from $310/kWh (NREL’s 2026 mid-case), both falling 4% a year. Geothermal at 9.5¢/kWh and fire-safe forest biomass at 19¢/kWh (California’s BioMAT program).
  • Backup: power bought from the regional grid costs 9¢/kWh, plus $110 per kW-year to keep backup capacity on call. California’s grid gets cleaner on the SB 100 path, and backup hours lean more on gas as the local grid takes over.
  • Local share: counts power made and stored on the distribution grid. Geothermal is counted as delivered over transmission lines.
  • Outage test: a 72-hour transmission outage during the October fire season, with batteries 90% charged. Critical loads are taken as 30% of normal demand.

This is an illustrative planning model, not an engineering or rate study. Real results depend on local load, sites, interconnection, financing, the purchase price and the law in your state. We can help commission a feasibility study for your community.

Practice areas

Where we work

Utility commission proceedings, writs and appeals, legislation and local ordinances, across California, Hawai‘i and the western states.

AI data centers and Bring Your Own Generation

Large-load tariffs, special contracts, cost allocation, conditions of approval

Utilities across the West are planning gigawatts of new generation and transmission to serve AI data centers. Unless regulators act, the bill for that buildout lands on everyone else.

We advocate for clean BYOG: data centers supply their own power through clean, additional, ratepayer-neutral resources, and pay the full cost of any grid service they still need. Minnesota’s HF 16, with dedicated tariffs, cost-shift prohibitions and stranded-asset protections, is the model to beat.

What we do

  • Intervene in PUC and other proceedings
  • Challenge confidential special contracts
  • Draft ordinances, moratoria and conditions of approval
  • Energy and grid-cost support in CEQA and NEPA cases

Electricity affordability

Rate design, revenue requirements, fixed charges, energy burden

Residential rates in California have risen far faster than inflation, and Hawai‘i pays the highest rates in the country. Wildfire spending, transmission buildout and guaranteed utility returns drive most of the increase.

We press commissions to compare every major spending program against lower-cost distributed alternatives, and to design rates that don’t punish the customers who conserve and self-generate.

What we do

  • Rate design proceedings
  • Cost-benefit challenges to wildfire and transmission spending
  • Advocacy for renters and low-income households

Rooftop solar, storage and interconnection

Net metering, Rule 21, hosting capacity, upgrade cost sharing

California’s NEM 3.0 decision cut export compensation by roughly three quarters, and the rooftop solar market contracted sharply. Customers who try to connect solar and storage still face long delays, shifting technical requirements and upgrade charges that utility projects don’t.

We build the factual record to challenge that unequal treatment, now under the stronger judicial review available after Center for Biological Diversity v. CPUC (2025).

What we do

  • Interconnection rule reform
  • Fair compensation for exported energy
  • Applications for rehearing and writ petitions

Microgrids, wildfire and resilience

Community microgrids, PSPS alternatives, distribution planning

Undergrounding lines through fire country costs millions of dollars per mile. Solar-and-storage microgrids can protect remote communities at a fraction of that cost, and keep the lights on during shutoffs.

Projects such as PG&E’s Briceburg remote grid and the Blue Lake Rancheria microgrid show it works. We push planners to weigh these options before ratepayers fund the most expensive one.

What we do

  • Microgrid tariffs and approval rules
  • Alternatives analysis in wildfire mitigation plans
  • Resilience for critical facilities

Community-owned power: co-ops and public utilities

Feasibility, formation, acquisition and DER-first utility design

Communities in California and Hawai‘i have replaced their investor-owned utility before. Kaua‘i’s member-owned cooperative and Sacramento’s municipal utility district both now charge less than the investor-owned utilities around them and are moving faster on clean energy than state law requires.

We help communities form electric cooperatives, municipal utilities and public utility districts, acquire the local grid, and build the new utility around rooftop solar, storage and microgrids. How it works →

What we do

  • Feasibility, valuation and financing analysis
  • Formation documents, ordinances and ballot measures
  • Acquisition, valuation and eminent domain proceedings
  • DER-first tariffs, interconnection rules and resource plans

Hawai‘i energy and food sovereignty

Island self-sufficiency, DER access, agrivoltaics

Hawai‘i imports roughly 90 percent of its energy and 90 percent of its food. One shipping disruption can threaten both. Rooftop solar, storage, community microgrids and farms that make their own power are the path to resilience.

We bring lessons from California proceedings to the Hawai‘i PUC and county councils, including the current debate over large AI data centers on the Big Island.

What we do

  • DER interconnection and compensation
  • County data center ordinances
  • Agrivoltaics and food-energy resilience hubs

Public trust and the duty to regulate

Atmospheric public trust doctrine, agency inaction

States hold the air, water and climate in trust for the public. When agencies decline to act on data center emissions, water use or grid impacts, the public trust doctrine can supply the obligation to act.

We develop these theories alongside cost causation and affordability claims, so each case rests on more than one leg.

What we do

  • Petitions to compel agency action
  • Public trust claims in western states
  • Policy research and amicus support

For co-counsel, communities and local governments

The firm that knows both the zoning hearing and the utility commission.

Most data center fights split into land-use litigation and utility regulation, and few lawyers work both. We bridge the two.

Energy co-counsel in CEQA and NEPA cases

Energy, emissions, backup-generator and grid-reliability arguments, expert coordination, and remedies such as clean-power conditions.

land-use litigators, environmental NGOs

Utility commission intervention

Large-load tariffs, rate design, resource plans and special contracts, with intervenor compensation where the state provides it.

community coalitions, cities, counties

Consulting and expert support

Cost-shift analyses, declarations, comment letters, model ordinances and conditions of approval.

litigators, councils drafting ordinances

Writs and appeals

Applications for rehearing and writ petitions framed for independent judicial review of commission statutory interpretation.

any party appealing a commission decision

Settlement design

Terms for 100% renewable supply, recycled cooling water and community benefit funds.

plaintiffs negotiating with developers

Policy and legislation

Bill analysis and drafting for BYOG, ratepayer protection and intervenor compensation statutes.

legislators, advocacy coalitions

On the docket

Current work

We appear as a party in proceedings where the rules for who pays are being written.

CPUC · R.26-04-009

Advanced Electric Rate Design rulemaking

Party representing distributed energy interests. Opening comments filed on the OIR, arguing that rate design must protect rooftop solar economics and hold data centers to the same cost causation standard.

CPUC · Intervenor compensation

Applications for rehearing

On behalf of the Green Power Institute, challenging compensation decisions that undervalue the work of public interest intervenors, starting with the microgrids proceeding (R.19-09-009).

Coming Jan. 2027 · SB 57

CPUC report on data center cost shifts

We will publish a response analysis when the Commission releases its report.

Blog

Data center fights in the West: what’s working

Communities are taking data center projects to court, and some are winning. Here’s what those cases teach, plus Tam Hunt’s case for why AI’s power appetite threatens the clean energy transition.

Voters backed limits on data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures

From Ohio to Kansas to Los Angeles County, Tuesday’s results sent a clear, bipartisan message: communities want a say, and they don’t want to pay for Big Tech’s power.

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On Nov. 3, voters in ten states (California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin) decided 41 local measures about data centers. By Ballotpedia’s count, voters sided with limiting data center development in 40 of them. The lone exception was Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected a review requirement for certain developments.

What passed. The measures weren’t all moratoria. Voters approved five outright bans, twelve partial bans (some aimed only at large facilities), three six-month moratoriums in Maine, zoning limits, two non-binding statements of opposition in Illinois, and requirements for a public vote on big projects. Grove City, Ohio now requires voter approval for developments over 50 acres, 20 megawatts or 500,000 gallons of water a day. Perry, Ohio requires hyperscale developers seeking tax breaks to post financial guarantees to the community.

What failed. Thirteen pro-data center measures went down, including all four rezonings in Wilmington, Ohio, seven non-binding statements of support, and a Boulder City, Nevada measure that would have opened the Eldorado Valley to data centers.

In the West. Alhambra, in Los Angeles County, approved a citywide ban on data centers, reportedly by about 82 to 18 percent. Nearby Monterey Park passed its own ban earlier this year. Boulder City’s defeat keeps data centers out of a large tract of city-owned desert.

What this says about the zeitgeist. These votes cut across party lines. Ohio and Kansas townships voted the same way as suburban Los Angeles, and outlets from Breitbart to Truthout covered the results as a rebuke to the industry. People are not voting against the internet or against AI as such. They are voting against a deal they have learned to recognize: a project negotiated behind closed doors, sold with jobs and tax revenue, that leaves residents with higher power bills, strained water supplies, diesel generators and no say.

What people actually want. Read together, the measures ask for four things:

  • A real say, including public votes and hearings before big projects are approved.
  • No cost shifts, so the companies profiting from AI pay for the power plants, lines and water systems they need.
  • Limits on scale where land, water and grid capacity can’t support a hyperscale campus.
  • Enforceable guarantees, not promises: collateral, exit fees and conditions that survive a change in ownership.

What it means for policymakers. Bans will keep spreading as long as the alternative is a blank check. The better answer is the one California just wrote into law with SB 886, and the one we have long argued for: data centers that bring their own clean power and pay the full cost of what they use. Officials who want data centers in their communities should offer voters those terms first.

Sources: Ballotpedia, Nov. 6, 2026 · GridSight vote tracker · Breitbart, Nov. 5, 2026 · Truthout

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A California court halts the Imperial County data center over skipped environmental review

A judge ruled the county approved a nearly 1-million-square-foot data center in pieces to avoid studying its impacts. Development is stopped until a full review is done.

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In September 2026, the Imperial County Superior Court set aside the county’s approval of a massive data center planned next to the Victoria Ranch neighborhood near the City of Imperial. The ruling halts development and requires the county to study the project’s environmental impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before it can move forward.

The project. Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing proposed a data center of nearly one million square feet, with a large battery system, natural gas generators and a new substation. Local coverage reported that it could need more power than the entire county used last year, and the developer estimated about 750,000 gallons of water a day.

How it was approved. The county treated the data center as allowed by right. It issued a grading permit with a CEQA exemption in November 2025, then approved a lot merger in April 2026. The City of Imperial sued in December 2025, and the Sierra Club’s San Diego and Imperial Counties chapter sued in May 2026. Their core argument was “segmentation”: approving a huge project one small piece at a time so that no single step triggers environmental review.

The road to a win was not smooth. In February 2026 the court found the city’s amended complaint insufficient as pleaded and suggested no rezoning or conditional use permit was required. The challengers regrouped around the lot merger. In September, Judge L. Brooks Anderholt found that the county had “prejudicially abused its discretion” by approving the merger without first completing CEQA review. The county did not oppose the tentative ruling. The developer has said it may seek a new trial or appeal, and is looking at other sites.

Why it matters. Data centers are often approved through ministerial permits that never ask about grid strain, water, air pollution from backup generators, or who pays for new substations and transmission. This ruling shows that CEQA still reaches projects approved in pieces. For ratepayers, the environmental review is also where the project’s power demand, and the grid upgrades it will need, get put on the record.

Sources: KPBS, Sept. 9, 2026 · KPBS, Sept. 1, 2026 · KPBS, May 27, 2026 · Calexico Chronicle, Feb. 11, 2026

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How a newspaper pried Google’s data center water use into the open in The Dalles

The city sued to keep Google’s water figures secret. After a 13-month fight it settled, released the numbers, and Google stopped calling site-level water use a trade secret.

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When The Oregonian asked the City of The Dalles in 2021 how much water Google’s data centers used, the city refused, calling the figures Google’s trade secrets. The Wasco County District Attorney ordered the records released. Instead of complying, the city sued the newspaper and reporter Mike Rogoway in Wasco County Circuit Court, a “reverse” public-records suit, with Google paying the city’s legal costs. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press defended the paper.

The timing mattered. In November 2021 the city council had unanimously approved two more Google data centers, before residents knew how much water the existing ones used.

The settlement. In December 2022, after 13 months, the city settled. It released Google’s annual water use for 2012 through 2021, agreed to release future years on request, and paid $53,000 toward the Reporters Committee’s legal fees, an amount Google committed to cover. Google said it would stop claiming site-level water use as a trade secret at its U.S. data centers.

What the numbers showed. Google’s water use in The Dalles nearly tripled in five years, reaching 274.5 million gallons in 2021, more than a quarter of the city’s water.

Why it matters. Communities can’t weigh a data center’s burden on water, power and infrastructure if the numbers are secret. Public records laws are often the fastest, cheapest tool residents have, and this case is now the leading example in the West. The same logic applies to electricity: special contracts between utilities and data centers should be filed in public dockets, where ratepayer advocates can test whether other customers are subsidizing them.

Sources: Reporters Committee, Dec. 15, 2022 · AP, Dec. 15, 2022

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Project Jupiter: New Mexico residents challenge $165 billion in data center bonds

A judge refused to dismiss the case, and the county is now questioning whether the developers kept their promise to stay off the grid.

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Project Jupiter is a proposed data center campus on about 1,400 acres near Santa Teresa and Sunland Park in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, tied in later coverage to Oracle and the OpenAI-linked “Stargate” buildout. It was pitched as running on its own gas and fuel-cell microgrid, so it would not burden the local grid. In September 2025, the Doña Ana County Commission approved up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds for the project.

The lawsuit. In October 2025, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center sued the commission in the Third Judicial District Court on behalf of local residents. The suit argues the county approved the bonds on incomplete applications, some with blank pages or pages marked “draft,” without weighing water, air and property-tax impacts, and that a data center does not qualify for incentives under the state’s Local Economic Development Act.

An early procedural win. In March 2026, Judge Jennifer DeLaney denied the county’s motion to dismiss, said the petitioners may be entitled to relief, and ordered the full administrative record produced. She declined to pause the incentives while the case proceeds. The merits are still pending, and related open-meetings and public-records suits have been filed.

The grid promise is now in question. In late October 2026 the commission voted to notify the developers of a possible breach of the bond agreement, after reports that Oracle wants backup power from El Paso Electric despite the promised off-grid microgrid. An air permit hearing is set for December.

Why it matters. “We’ll bring our own power” is becoming a standard pitch. This case shows why it has to be written into enforceable conditions, with ratepayer protections if the project later asks the utility for service. Without those terms, the costs of serving a campus this size can end up on everyone else’s bills.

Sources: Las Cruces Sun-News, Mar. 20, 2026 · Albuquerque Journal, Mar. 24, 2026 · KRWG, Oct. 28, 2026

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AI’s power needs could undo the renewable energy revolution

Solar has finally won on price. In Scientific American, Tam Hunt argues that AI data centers could swallow those gains, and that there are only a few years to act.

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For decades, clean energy advocates fought to make solar cheaper than fossil fuels. That fight is largely won. As Tam Hunt writes in Scientific American, solar prices fall about 20% with every doubling of installed capacity, renewables made up 92.5% of new global generation in 2024, and solar is now the cheapest new power in most countries.

The threat. AI data centers could consume those gains. U.S. data centers used about 183 terawatt-hours in 2024, roughly the electricity demand of Pakistan, and projections run to 325–580 TWh by 2028, mostly driven by AI. Projects like the 10-gigawatt Stargate buildout, the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1 for AI, and multi-gigawatt campuses show the scale. In the PJM grid region, data centers account for 30 of the 32 gigawatts of projected peak growth through 2030, and rates are rising.

Efficiency won’t save us by itself. When DeepSeek matched GPT-4 with far less computing, developers built bigger systems rather than using less energy. Official forecasts, Hunt argues, understate the risk because they miss concentrated megaprojects; if half of the announced U.S. projects are built, data centers could reach 15–20% of U.S. demand by 2030.

The bottleneck is the grid. Transmission and equipment lead times run past two years. The default response so far has been reactive: new gas plants and approved rate increases. The U.S. has no mandatory efficiency standards for AI and no coordination between AI growth and grid planning.

What to do. Hunt calls for slowing data center construction while policy catches up, and treating AI’s energy demand with the urgency we apply to climate. That is the thinking behind Grid Justice Law’s push for clean Bring Your Own Generation: new data centers should bring new clean power and pay their full grid costs, so that the renewable gains households paid for aren’t simply eaten by new load.

Read the full article: “AI’s Power Needs Will Destroy the Renewable Energy Revolution,” Scientific American

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Case summaries are drawn from public reporting and are for general information. Grid Justice Law is not counsel in these cases.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Why are my electric bills so high?

In California, most recent rate growth comes from wildfire mitigation and liability costs and from transmission and distribution spending that earns utilities a guaranteed return. Whether rooftop solar raises other customers’ bills is disputed: the CPUC estimates a cost shift, while an analysis commissioned by the solar industry finds it saves customers money overall. In Hawai‘i, dependence on imported oil keeps rates the highest in the nation. Utility commissions decide how much of this spending is approved and who pays, and ratepayers can take part in those decisions.

Can a data center raise my electric bill?

Yes. When a utility builds new generation, substations or transmission lines to serve a large data center, those costs can be added to rates for every customer, and households can keep paying if the data center leaves or never arrives. Dedicated large-load tariffs, stranded-asset protections and clean Bring Your Own Generation rules keep those costs with the data center.

Can residents sue to stop a data center?

Residents and community groups can challenge the approvals a data center needs, for example a rezoning granted without required hearings, an inadequate environmental review, open-meeting or public-records violations, or a utility contract that shifts costs to other customers. Every case depends on its facts and deadlines can be short, so it helps to get advice early. No lawyer can promise a particular result.

What is Bring Your Own Generation (BYOG)?

BYOG means a data center supplies its own power, rather than drawing new capacity that other customers pay for. Clean BYOG adds two conditions: the power comes from new clean resources, and the data center pays the full cost of any grid service it still uses.

What is a large-load tariff?

A large-load tariff is a separate rate schedule for very large new customers, such as data centers. Strong tariffs require long-term contracts, minimum bills, collateral and exit fees, so other customers are not left with the cost of infrastructure built for one project.

Does it make sense to go off-grid in California or Hawaiʻi?

It can. Off-grid usually makes financial sense when a new utility line would be expensive, when household use is modest, or when a site gets good winter sun. Homes already connected to the grid often save more by adding solar and a battery while keeping the connection. Our free off-grid calculator compares the utility alone, solar plus battery on the grid, and fully off-grid over 20 years.

Is it legal to live off-grid in California?

Yes. California does not require homes to connect to a utility, but building and electrical permits still apply, and some counties have rules about occupancy, water and septic for off-grid homes. Lenders and insurers may also ask about the power system. Check local rules before you build.

Are there tax credits for home solar and batteries in 2026?

The federal residential clean energy credit ended for systems installed after 2025. California has no state solar tax credit. Hawaiʻi offers a 35% renewable energy technologies income tax credit, capped at $5,000 for a typical home solar system. Rules change, so confirm with a tax professional.

Can our community form its own electric utility?

Often, yes. Communities can form an electric cooperative, a city-owned municipal utility or a voter-created public utility district, then buy the local grid from its current owner by agreement or, if the owner refuses, through eminent domain at a price set by regulators or a court. Kaua‘i did it as a cooperative in 2002. Sacramento did it as a municipal utility district, which began service in 1946 after more than two decades of litigation with PG&E. It usually takes years and the incumbent utility usually fights it, so a feasibility study and a legal plan come first.

What is intervenor compensation?

California pays the reasonable costs of eligible parties, including community and ratepayer groups, who make a substantial contribution to a California Public Utilities Commission decision. That makes it possible for public interest groups to participate in Commission proceedings with professional help.

Do you represent clients in Hawai‘i?

Tam Hunt is admitted to practice in California. In Hawai‘i we provide policy analysis and testimony, and any litigation is handled together with Hawai‘i-licensed co-counsel or through pro hac vice admission where permitted.

About the firm

Tam Hunt has spent his career on the side of distributed energy and the people who pay the bills. For 25 years he has practiced renewable energy and public interest law, appearing before the California Public Utilities Commission on distributed solar, battery storage, electric vehicles, interconnection, net metering, microgrids, rate design and cost allocation.

Since 2011 he has represented the Green Power Institute at the Commission, most recently as its legal director, and he was the lead author of GPI’s DER Acceleration Plan for California. Earlier he served as counsel to the Clean Coalition, pressing for a larger, fairer market for local renewable energy.

He is the author of Solar: Why Our Energy Future Is So Bright, and writes on AI and energy for Scientific American, Canary Media and Utility Dive.

Tam Hunt beside flowing lava on Hawaiʻi Island

Born in England, Tam came to the United States with his family at age nine, grew up on the West Coast and served in the U.S. Army in Germany and Hawai‘i. He has lived on Hawai‘i Island since 2016, where he serves on the board of the Hawai‘i EV Association and co-founded Think BIG, a nonprofit for sustainability, equity and resilience.

Grid Justice Law is small by design. Research, docket tracking and first drafts are supported by AI tools under attorney supervision, which keeps costs low for public interest clients. Every filing is reviewed and signed by counsel.

Clients

  • Green Power InstituteCPUC proceedings on renewables, interconnection, microgrids and intervenor compensation, 2011–present
  • Clean CoalitionCPUC advocacy for local renewable energy and feed-in tariff programs
  • City of Thousand OaksCalifornia municipal client
  • Community Environmental CouncilSanta Barbara environmental nonprofit
  • RightCycle
  • Advanced Medical Devices
  • Protongenix

Associates

Who we work with

Grid Justice Law draws on a small network of experienced energy policy experts.

Sahm White

Sahm White

Associate · Economics and policy analysis

Sahm White has more than 20 years of experience in economic and environmental energy policy, focused on the local value of clean energy, and has made more than 300 filings before public utility and energy commissions. He has been a senior consultant to the Sierra Club, Clean Coalition, 350 Bay Area and the Center for Ecoliteracy, and helped develop the Ecological Footprint at Redefining Progress. He did graduate work in the social studies of science and technology at MIT and in environmental science at San José State University.

Michael Chiacos

Michael Chiacos

Associate · Energy, climate and clean transportation

Michael Chiacos has 20 years of experience in clean energy, transportation, and climate programs. He was the Energy & Climate Program Director and Policy Director at Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council for 15 years. He formed a three-county electric vehicle readiness group, works on state policy at the California Public Utilities Commission, and was principal author of the Council’s Transportation Energy Plan for cutting fossil fuel use in transportation.

Lorenzo Kristov

Lorenzo Kristov

Associate · Grid architecture and market design

Lorenzo Kristov has more than 25 years in electricity policy. From 1999 to 2017 he was a Principal in market design and infrastructure policy at the California ISO, where he helped design its nodal wholesale market and led redesigns of transmission planning and generator interconnection. Since 2013 he has developed the distribution system operator (DSO) model for a grid built from the community up, and he now helps communities and local governments design local power systems for resilience, decarbonization and energy justice.

Allie Detrio

Allie Detrio

Associate · Microgrid and clean energy policy

Allie Detrio is founder and chief strategist of Reimagine Power, a San Francisco microgrid and clean energy policy firm, and a senior advisor to the Microgrid Resources Coalition, leading its work in the western states. Over more than 15 years she has helped pass California’s microgrid law (SB 1339), win $800 million in new energy storage incentives (SB 700) and secure microgrid eligibility and $700 million for the state’s reliability programs (AB 205). She holds a B.S. in Sustainability from Arizona State University.

Marco Mangelsdorf

Associate · Hawaiʻi solar and cooperative power

Marco Mangelsdorf is a long-time veteran of Hawaiʻi’s energy sector. A founding member of ProVision Solar in Hilo, he serves as its responsible managing employee. He is a director of the Hawaiʻi Island Energy Cooperative, which has worked since 2015 to bring member-owned power to the Big Island, and he has written on Hawaiʻi energy policy for Honolulu Civil Beat.

Associates are independent policy experts who work with the firm on specific matters. They are not attorneys and do not provide legal advice.

Contact

Facing a data center, a rate hike or a blocked interconnection?

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