Maybe what they're doing in Oregon with POWER Act hikes on data centers is the way:
Oregon approves PGE’s 29.7% rate hike for data centers under landmark law
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/07/oregon-data-center-ge...
Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
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Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#32Isn't this the same as saying "utility regulators delaying connecting new power to the grid hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B?" When my apples are expensive, I don't generally grumble about all the demand from pie makers. If they demand more apples, new suppliers should come in to restore the price, right?
Do you need apples to turn on your lights? Was there a sudden new influx of pie makers? Is growing apples a government granted monopoly business?
If the answer to these questions was yes, yes, and yes then I think you would grumble.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#33It's important to ground the increase in raw numbers.
The total revenue for electricity generation was $514b in 2024. So this was a 4-5% increase in costs. And if it is being invested in better generation and our aging infrastructure, that seems fine.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#34> But what if the power company needs to upgrade the substation to handle the increased needs of the data center? Or secure additional sources of electricity? In these cases, the investments are part of the electricity grid that everyone uses. These costs will likely be shared among all customers. Okay but this is a policy choice. It doesn’t have to be that way.
I'm really tired of reading comments like this"this is a policy choice" when these companies are straight up bribing politicians or exploiting their conflicts of interest to make this their policy. The public doesn't have a choice when all our leaders are bought and paid for by oligarchs and their businesses.
Comments like this are even more tiring. Everyone knows that there are moneyed interests in politics. But decisions on these issues are made at a local level and so are the most addressable by local political actions.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I live, if a developer wants to build a subdivision, they pay for the water and sewer lines. They pay to connect those lines to the city infrastructure. If the city infrastructure needs to be upgraded to handle the new volumes, they pay for at least a proportionate share of that too. The ongoing maintenance becomes part of the city's budget eventually, but not the costs of the build out. All those costs go into…
The “affordable” housing thing seems like such a misdirection. I can’t help but daydream that some moneyed interest somewhere fans those flames, as it looks like a dead end that can absorb endless fervor. You know what you do if you want an affordable car? You buy used. I think most people understand Ford is never going to build another a car that costs $10k brand new, and the last new car near that price barely sold…
It's almost like "affordable hosuing" are the vacancies that the people moving into shiny new homes leave behind.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#36Data centers should at the very least build their own renewable energy generation. It would set the right incentives in place and encourage investment in clean energy generation solutions. It would also present a very compelling problem to direct all that new AI compute towards solving.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Precisely this. Incredibly annoying headline
It doesn't even match what's in the article. > "concluded that expected power demand from data centers was _a_ primary reason for $23 billion in customer price increases " Also, it's weird that he describes PJM as "the organization that monitors the PJM market" when they describe themselves as "a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity" [0]. So are they monitors…
Right, you can't point to a year where price increases didn't happen, so "a primary reason" becomes meaningless. It was going to happen for other reasons if it didn't happen for this one.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#38> But what if the power company needs to upgrade the substation to handle the increased needs of the data center? Or secure additional sources of electricity? In these cases, the investments are part of the electricity grid that everyone uses. These costs will likely be shared among all customers. Okay but this is a policy choice. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Precisely this. Incredibly annoying headline
I find it hilarious nobody ever mentions texas w/r/t this issue. They already required new Large Load Interconect Studies- and paying the cost of new grid infra. And, the hufe influx of study reqiests lead to new laws introducing batching.
I will note- the actual generation is left to market economics. I have much more faith in that working out equitably than regulating the grid. Even so, they've had significant consumer level grod connection fee increases- which I think reflects the end of various easy houshold effeciency gains (eg: incandecent -> CFL -> LED, P4 -> 14th gen, and HVAC. mainly lighting) and privatized profits more than anything.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#39What is the increase in jobs/GDP for those communities that have paid more in electricity? A lot of these data centers are built in places with declining population and zero economic prospects for locals within their communities so they're a huge boon.
Re: Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I live, if a developer wants to build a subdivision, they pay for the water and sewer lines. They pay to connect those lines to the city infrastructure. If the city infrastructure needs to be upgraded to handle the new volumes, they pay for at least a proportionate share of that too. The ongoing maintenance becomes part of the city's budget eventually, but not the costs of the build out. All those costs go into…
That's smart. Do they do it with roads also? That's a big one near me - developers buying hundred acre farms on unpainted 2 lane country roads and jamming in 2000 houses. Then inevitably the road becomes unusable until the city or county gets around to addressing it. Always wondered why the county didn't require the road work, or money for it, up front.
That's negligence on the part of the county/township. Around here, every new development is required to pay for the traffic and utilities improvements that will be required once the thing is built. (And all the engineering that goes into figuring out the impact in the first place.)