TVA sets new data center rate

The latest: At its board meeting Aug. 20, TVA approved a data center rate that will apply to all new and existing data center customers with four standard rate classes based on demand for each specific data center.

• A "capacity commitment charge" will cover capacity costs the rate alone will not cover, per TVA, and operational requirements will focus on reinforcing grid reliability.

Zoom in: TVA expects data centers to pay on average about 10% more, per Tom Rice, TVA's chief financial officer, who said at last week's board meeting that the changes will be phased in over the next three fiscal years.

• Data centers with demand above 5 megawatts will be subject to a provision covering incremental capacity costs not covered by the flat data center rate.

Catch up quick: Board member Randy Jones told Axios Huntsville in June that this move was on the way.

• At the time, he said, "(Data centers) are going to come in and give us their plan of action: how they're going to pay for it and put it on our transmission lines to make it work."

Driving the news: Huntsville residents raised concerns at a meeting organized by Empowering Women's Causes the day before the TVA board meeting, expressing concerns about Meta's plans to expand its Huntsville data center, per Fox 54.

• Lynn Anderson, president of Empowering Women's Causes, told the news outlet that the group wants a one-year moratorium on any other planned data centers.

Go deeper: The data center fight is heating up. Here's how they work