By Laila Kearney and Sumit Saha
NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) – A group of U.S. lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren asked federal energy regulators this week to reject a more than $33 billion sale of power company AES to a BlackRock subsidiary and its investment partners, saying the deal could drive up electricity bills and allow data centers to benefit at the expense of utility customers, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
U.S. electricity demand is being driven to record new highs, largely by the proliferation of energy-intensive data centers, spurring a flurry of power mergers and acquisitions, some of which propose to take public electric utilities private.
BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, alongside EQT and other investors, agreed in March to acquire AES in a deal valued at about $33.4 billion including debt, making it one of the largest power sector transactions in recent years.
“The private equity industry’s involvement in the public utility market has significant implications for consumers’ energy costs at a time when Americans are facing record high utility bills,” said the letter, dated Sept. 28, which was directed to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Laura Swett.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Sumit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Liz Hampton and Chizu Nomiyama)
