Duke Energy President and CEO Harry Sideris said the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers will not increase electricity bills for existing customers. The comments come as concern about power costs intensifies ahead of November's midterm elections.

Sideris told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview that data centers will instead deliver cost savings rather than higher rates. He emphasized structured contracts that require large users to pay upfront for needed infrastructure.

“Even from Day 1, [data centers are] paying the infrastructure costs up front if needed for the transmission interconnections,” Sideris said. “And then the generation is paid for by them as we’re building it out. So there is no impact to the customers, and then … the savings come years later.”

The utility has signed agreements for about 7.6 gigawatts of data center demand, with more in the pipeline. Sideris estimated that each gigawatt added could yield around $1 billion in savings to customers over the life of the contract through the company's “customer protection plus” approach.

Duke Energy serves 10 million customers across six states and is executing the industry's largest regulated capital plan of $103 billion over five years. This includes building substantial new generation capacity to meet record demand growth driven by data centers, manufacturing, and population increases in the Southeast.

Sideris noted ongoing public misunderstanding about how these large loads are handled, stressing that protections ensure no cost shift to residential and smaller business customers. The company has also explored rate structures to make savings visible on bills.

Power costs have become a political flashpoint, with electricity prices rising nationally. Sideris highlighted that Duke's rates remain below the national average and are increasing more slowly than inflation, aided by cost-cutting measures such as tax credit sales and utility mergers.