Data Land USA: PG&E says it won't let AI data centers raise Central Valley power bills

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- With the rise of AI and cloud computing, some neighborhoods are getting a little louder.

One Chicago-area resident could hear the hum of a data center's backup generator near their home last April.

It's what Andy Masley says happens when the services Americans love meet the computers that do the work.

"...Anything from like internet storage to video streaming and now, increasingly, AI tasks, specifically," Masley, an AI Expert and Director of Effective Altruism DC, recently told ABC News.

RELATED: A 600-acre AI data center could cost some Wisconsin residents their land

An investigation by the network and ABC Owned Stations reveals more than 3,000 data centers across the country. There are 275 of them in California, and three are in Fresno.

Sources suggest the local data centers are small and focused on internet service.

One in north Fresno is tucked away in an industrial park, and a second one is down the road. It is difficult to tell they are even there, but air conditioning units outside are a key indicator.

Data centers require a lot of cooling, and larger ones, like those used for AI, are known to draw massive amounts of power.

"...As much as a large U.S. city. And so, connecting them to the power grid often involves building billions of dollars of new infrastructure to generate enough power for them and also to deliver that power," Ari Peskoe, the Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program, told ABC.

Peskoe explains that the new infrastructure has prompted concerns. In some cases, the added cost is passed on to consumers.

"We recognized that we needed to take a different approach in order to make sure that we could support these data centers coming into communities," local PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith told Action News on Wednesday.

The California utility company is working with data center operators so that they pay the cost for the new infrastructure before it is built. Other customers are not on the hook.

"Those who are going to essentially benefit financially from the data center should be the ones to fund the necessary infrastructure development that needs to take place to support it," Smith said about PG&E's policy.

From electricity to changing landscapes, Peskoe also warns about the environmental effects when large data centers move in across the street.

"These are big, giant warehouses that have their own diesel generators that make a lot of noise and spew a lot of pollution," Peskoe said.

Experts say there are positives to data centers, which often generate large amounts of tax revenue. They also create construction jobs and leave behind some high-paying jobs for employees who maintain the facilities.

As AI booms, more data centers are on the way.

The U.S. Navy and Ameresco announced last year plans for what they call " one of its largest energy assets" at NAS Lemoore.

The "AI-optimized" data center will use 100 MW, enough energy to power 85,000 homes. It will handle "sensitive government" and "mission-critical" systems.

It is among the 1,200 data centers already under construction or soon to be built, according to Data Center Map, an industry site that tracks data center development.

Alison Lindburg is the Director of Sustainability in a town that recently put a pause on any new data center construction.

"...Just in general, across the U.S., we need more data centers to, you know, really respond to the amount of demand that we have," Lindburg said.

Much more of ABC News' report on "Data Land USA - How AI is Changing Our Neighborhoods" airs Wednesday on ABC News Live Prime and Nightline.