Michigan is faced with two directions for its energy policy during a moment when unprecedented data center growth is reshaping the country’s electricity system. One direction, titled the “Expansion Package,” consists of three policies that require data centers to pay the full costs they impose on the grid, expand customer-owned clean energy, and weatherize Michigan homes at scale. The other direction, titled the “Repeal Package,” is the repeal of Michigan’s 2023 clean energy laws, including clean energy standards, energy waste reduction requirements, and related provisions. This study models the household affordability impacts of each package through 2040.

Results show that the Expansion Package reduces household energy costs, while the Repeal Package increases them. Taken together, the difference between the two policy directions amounts to $11.6 billion in cumulative household energy costs from 2027 through 2040, which equals $2,772 cumulatively for the average Michigan household.

These results were produced with a suite of modeling tools, including GenX, an open-source electricity system capacity expansion model developed at MIT and Princeton University, configured with Rhodium Group data center load projections; the Michigan Energy Policy Simulator for economy-wide policies; and Greenline’s MI-AFFORD model, which traces both direct bill impacts and the indirect pass-through of business energy costs to household budgets.