Big Tech wants to plug data centers right into power plants. Utilities say it's not fair

Looking for a quick fix for their fast-growing electricity diets, tech giants are increasingly looking to strike deals that would let them plug directly into power plants. That would allow them to avoid a long and expensive process of hooking into a fraying electric grid that serves everyone else. But it's raising questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. Federal regulators are trying to figure out what to do about it, and quickly. They're currently weighing a case involving an Amazon cloud computing subsidiary that is building a data center next to a nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania.