If you want to gauge the political temperature around utility bills and the datacenter boom, the Department of Energy just made its biggest loan in history to help keep a lid on utility bills in a datacenter hotspot. One that includes a swing state, Georgia.

The department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing will provide a package of loans worth up to $26.5 billion to two subsidiaries of utility Southern Co., Alabama Power and Georgia Power. It is a huge sum, equivalent to almost a third of Southern’s five-year capital expenditure plan (with which the loan drawing period mostly overlaps) and almost 90% of the office’s portfolio of projects agreed to date. In keeping with the office’s mandate, the money will fund investment in generation capacity, batteries and the grid, enhancing reliability. The pitch, however, centers on that word that will feature so heavily in this midterms year: Affordability.

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