Aug. 9, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
PPL Corp. posted second-quarter earnings early Friday but the real news came out later in a conference call.
Chief Executive Vincent Sorgi said he doesn’t expect Pennsylvania to enact a moratorium on data centers.
New York and Texas have implemented moratoriums, though neither is an outright ban. The idea behind moratoriums is to give governments a chance to update zoning rules and protect residents from increases in costs for electricity and water.
Data centers are prolific users of energy and some residents worry about their own electricity bills going up. Going up more, that is; they’ve already gone up. However, data centers can bring in billions of dollars in spending as companies invest in Artificial Intelligence. Of course a lot of people say they don’t like AI.
In Pennsylvania, there has been lots of talk about a moratorium, but in a state where passing a budget is an annual ordeal, such a bill would be difficult to pass and if one is approved, it might be toothless.
PPL’s Sorgi of course wants data centers, they will create business for the Allentown-based energy company. However, he can’t just spout off the way politicians do. When he addresses investors, Wall Street analysts, the bond markets and the Board of Directors, it’s best to take him seriously and to keep in mind that Sorgi has a history of success.
So back to Friday. Paul Patterson of Glenrock Associates (thank you, Paul!) asked about “what might happen in the next few months in Harrisburg?”
Here’s how Sorgi responded on the conference call.
He discussed “tremendous data center interest in Pennsylvania” particularly in PPL’s service area. He said that means a lot of investment, “Which is good, but it also can overwhelm these local communities.”
He noted that some towns want things “to slow down a little bit” to review projects and update zoning requirements, adding, “That seems very reasonable to us.”
Sorgi also noted, “While there was some legislation advanced in the (state) House, I would say that the state continues to remain supportive of this type of development” as long as customers and communities are protected.
“What one community might think is a benefit, another may not,” Sorgi said. Just an aside, that is how the warehouse boom was viewed. A few places welcomed them, in the right location.
Then he listed objections to data centers: “It’s the water, it’s the land, it’s the noise, it’s power prices and power reliability.” Sorgi said PPL’s plans to build new generation capacity in a joint venture with Blackrock will take some pressure off demand.
That might not help him with the people who don’t like Blackrock, a huge asset manager.
And the big finish:
“All of these things, I think, are moving us in a consistent direction with where some of this legislation, or at least the ideas behind some of this legislation, were coming from. Again, I don’t think it’s misplaced. I don’t think that you’re going to see moratoriums or we just can’t add data centers in Pennsylvania. We just need to make sure that our customers and our communities are protected as we do it. Again, I think all that’s reasonable,” he said.
Then Sorgi noted how Pennsylvania government works. Sometimes bills get tossed out to get headlines but nothing ever happens. The proposals quietly expire and politicians move on to the next flag-raising or local grant or self-serving press release.
He didn’t put it that way, I did. I’m the cynical one here.
Back to Sorgi:
“I think they want to see how some of these other things progress to see if they need to pull that lever or not. Of course, we continue to have regular discussions with them. This will play out as those bills are debated in their respective committees, and we’ll see whether they come out of committee or not.”
Yes, we will.
Shares of PPL (NYSE:PPL) rose 84 cents for a closing price of $35.46 on Friday. At that price, the company’s market capitalization is $26.7 billion.
Disclosure: I own shares in PPL and in companies that are pushing for data centers. That doesn’t mean I want to live next to a big building full of computer equipment.
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