Energy bills are on the rise. Here’s why:

CHARLOTTE — The United States Energy Information Administration says electric heating costs are going up an average of 4% nationwide.

Contributing factors include the rise of electric cars, newer appliances pulling in more electricity, and the biggest culprit — data centers.

According to an analysis from Bloomberg, electricity costs are up 267% per month in areas near data centers.

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In Matthews, one of the reasons residents did not want a data center was because it was going to take the same amount of electricity used to power every home in the town limits.

The proposed data center coming to Uptown Charlotte will be significantly smaller, but it will still use enough electricity equal to that of 10,000 homes.

VIDEO: Charlotte data center project moves forward without public input, raising questions