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We Found the Hidden Cost of Data Centers. It's in Your Electric Bill [video]
- mhb 1y agoWould have liked a text version. And that would save energy too.
- sampo 1y agoIn the description text field click "...more" and then "Show transcript".
- gadflyinyoureye 1y agoGo to Google's AI studio. Drop that link in it. Ask it for a transcript or summary. Wait a minute. Then read.
- programmarchy 1y agoThis proves the GPs point about saving energy. Think about how inefficient it would be for each individual to create their own transcript via an LLM.
- Karawebnetwork 1y agoKnowledge online rarely lives alone. Here's a similar article: https://theconversation.com/how-your-electric-bill-may-be-paying-for-big-data-centers-energy-use-257794 https://theconversation.com/how-your-electric-bill-may-be-pa...
- krunger 1y agoAbsolutely agree. I wonder how many kw get wasted watching YouTube or ticktack?
- gusgus01 1y agoThere's a transcript of the video in the description nowadays. It's not always great to read or scrub through, but it's a text version.
- fibers 1y agoI was looking into energy markets and how they work and it is truly a cluster of moving parts all along the Eastern Interconnect. The question is when is the shoe going to really drop? You can only keep prices going up on an inelastic good before something really bad happens, and this doesn't even touch climate tail risks like heat sagging tx lines across the grid.
- Covzire 1y agoThis is a tangent, but one untapped source of energy savings that seems to be invisible to climate activists is Microsoft Windows' constant drain on resources relative to Linux and MacOS. It's shocking how energy inefficient Windows is even when it's doing absolutely nothing noticable for a user.
- dist-epoch 1y agoYou are being funny, considering what a shit-show is Linux laptop power management.
- esseph 1y agoAs a desktop and laptop Linux user for many years, I wholeheartedly agree.
- jeffbee 1y agoI can pretty much guarantee you that the typical Windows desktop machine uses much less energy than the typical Linux desktop machine of similar capabilities. Linux power saving basically never works out of the box unless the user has carefully selected the platform to avoid the Linux kernel's numerous defects. By contrast every computer that comes with Windows has working energy-saving features from the factory because that's how Dell and HP get those Energy Star ratings.
- linuxftw 1y agoThe average windows box is full of so much bloatware, it likely evens out.
- MrFoof 1y ago.
- rcxdude 1y ago>5GW consumption I assume is per day? GW is already a measure of rate of energy use. You can talk about GWh per day (which is really just another way of saying 0.041 GW), but GW per day is only sensible in the context of a ramp in power consumption. Assuming the original source of that number didn't incorrectly conflate GWh into GW, that puts your comparison as underestimating the energy usage 24-fold.
- dist-epoch 1y ago> Yet increasing the power consumption of an area by 25X over a few years requires a significant amount of transmission and distribution infrastructure upgrades to make that happen Not if you put your data-center right next to the power station.
- ben_w 1y ago> The 5GW consumption I assume is per day? If so, that’s on par with 170,000 average homes… being put in a parish with around 7250 households. Watts are Joules per second, you'd only measure "watts per day" as a rate of change of power supply, not absolute power supply. Also, 5GW / 170000 homes ≈ 29kW/home, even the USA isn't that heavily supplied with electricity. (My home in Germany is very efficient, 0.5 kW average, including heating and cooling as well as all devices).
- matt-p 1y agoI've heard 5GW touted as the capacity (so like 120GWH per day if flat loaded at 100%). However that is clearly B.S as I've also heard 2GW and another much more sensible number Just to give perspective 5GW would power about 10 Million H100s or about 5 million G200. Completely farcical, won't happen.
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- Jcampuzano2 1y agoClear example of privatization of everything... until its the big corporations who need to get something done - then its socialism in disguise. And of course they hide all the deals behind closed doors so their customers can't see who all, and how much they're subsidizing. If there is a sudden increase in demand/supply issues due to large corporations they should be the ones to subsidize the bill. I'd argue in the communities this affects they should be forced to cover for everyone who lives in the area for materially making their lives worse. Not to mention utility companies should be forced to be transparent in the pricing/deals they make with tech companies. They are likely just luring them in with a deal and passing off the rest to their customers so they still don't lose out in the short term. They want the best of both worlds - still making all the same profits short term by passing on to customers while getting the long term lock-in for these data centers.
- OtherShrezzing 1y ago>should be the ones to subsidize the bill Clarity on the wording here. They should be the ones _paying_ the bill, not subsidising it. It's not subsidising if they're the consumer of the marginal product.
- abvdasker 1y ago> socialism in disguise I really dislike this kind of rhetoric. This has nothing to do with socialism. Corporations profiting from externalities and pushing costs onto regular workers is just capitalism. If you have a problem with it, maybe you have a problem with the inevitable concentrations of wealth and power which result from capitalism.
- lyu07282 1y agoTexas even subsidizes the energy bill of crytominers directly, they receive discounts and subsidies while consumers pay more and more: https://earthjustice.org/experts/mandy-deroche/how-much-do-we-subsidize-cryptocurrency-minings-electricity-use-no-one-knows https://earthjustice.org/experts/mandy-deroche/how-much-do-w...
- antonymoose 1y agoMost water systems have similar deals. Customers will pay a fixed rate infrastructure base fee plus a usage fee, that usage fee for residential is higher than the discounted rate industry receives. Much like corporations venue shopping municipalities for tax discounts, we need a Federal ban on these corporate subsidies at a Federal level to put us all back on a fair playing field.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- r_lee 1y agoI don't think it's that hidden by now lol
- Mistletoe 1y agoAh now I see why electric costs are increasing at double the rate of inflation. But hey I got to make some images of the Muppets in various movies using AI. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5502671/electricity-bill-high-inflation-ai https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5502671/electricity-bil... https://imgur.com/a/d14oNOP https://imgur.com/a/d14oNOP
- nxm 1y agoYea let's just have China lead in AI... They're building out additional capacity at an incredible pace to meet demand.
- dist-epoch 1y agoSome of us call this "capitalism". Prices are driven by offer and demand, efficient market allocation to who can extract most value from a resource, we like that on HN.
- SoftTalker 1y agoPrices are actually driven by value. How much do you want the thing? Do data centers value power? I would think so, since they cannot operate without it. Utilities should be charging them a premium.
- dist-epoch 1y agoIf utilities charge them a premium, why would they sell power to those which do not pay the premium instead of auctioning all power?
- LargeWu 1y agoBecause they're theoretically regulated and ordered to do so. The market for power is not a free market due to the locally monopolistic nature of it.
- datadrivenangel 1y agoThings cost exactly what we pay for them.
- ceejayoz 1y agoAnd this is precisely why raw, unfettered capitalism isn't really the norm in the developed world.
- LargeWu 1y agoCaptialism is really good at efficiency. But it is not so good at allocation, specifically for essential goods, and that's the problem here.
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- righthand 1y agoDoes anyone here care though? Everyone using LLMs are directly supporting lower quality of life and high cost-of-living across the country. No person can do anything except fund Zuckerberg's next island purchase and laugh about how they’re using LLMs to vibe code their next unreleased hobby app. It is truly sad that we are selling out our quality of life for short term gain for tech corporations.
- throw0101d 1y agoFrom 2022: > […] Applying a new data set for country-level energy prices since 1960, this study evaluates the effects of energy prices on economic growth in 18 OECD countries by controlling for other important macroeconomic conditions that shape economic activity. Mean-group estimates that control for cross-country correlations are used to emphasize average responses across nations. Averaged across all nations, results suggest that a 10% increase in energy prices dampened economic growth by about 0.15%. Moreover, some evidence exists that this response may be larger for more energy-intensive economies. * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014098832200247X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01409... Though an interesting graph for Sweden on GDP growth and energy use: * https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-gdp-decoupling https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-gdp-decoupling
- jtchang 1y agoGreat video on how the public is getting screwed on energy deals. Basically large tech companies have the deep pockets to push up prices at electricity auctions. But why bid in public when you can do those deals in private. That's the first problem. All that needs to be out in the open. What really irks me is that the market is so manipulated that we can't do anything about it. Think about NEM 3.0 vs 2.0. Putting data centers in their own rate class does make sense as the first step.
- boringg 1y agoPrivate deals - do you mean like a Power Purchase agreement? That doesn't fall out to the public cost domain and certainly shouldn't be a public good.
- gruez 1y ago>Basically large tech companies have the deep pockets to push up prices at electricity auctions. But why bid in public when you can do those deals in private. Public utilities can't do the same? Moreover if the implication is that large tech companies are somehow getting great prices at the expense of residential users, what does that mean for the electric generators on the other end of this transaction? Why are they leaving money on the table by selling to large tech companies for cheap?
- jimbokun 1y agoWatch the video. These companies are regulated and can only charge for the costs they incur plus a flat profit on top of that of 10% or so. The datacenters give allow them to justify building a lot more capacity to serve them. That increases costs, which means that 10% added for profit is now a bigger number and they can give bigger returns to their shareholders. But those profits are extracted from the existing customers who now see higher bills to cover the costs of expanding capacity to serve the datacenters. It's a question of aligning incentives.
- zahlman 1y ago(Why) are the datacenters not (also) charged (pun intended) for this?
- nodesocket 1y agoNews flash Casandra, a $65/mo power bill is peanuts. Try owning a home with HVAC.
- mrala 1y agoYou seem to be missing the point entirely. 1. The bill shown for July 2024 was for about $100, which includes $65 of supply charges. 2. The bill for July 2025 was for about $129, with supply charges of $84. 3. Despite actual usage being lower for July 2025, the total cost increased by 29%. The point being raised is that energy costs are higher for individuals because the cost of building infrastructure to support data centers is being subsidized by individuals. Even if her bill was for $65, it is inconsequential to the main point. I don’t understand why people make comments like yours other than to muddy the waters and obfuscate the issue. Or truly failing to understand what is being communicated due to some bias or ideology. A sad microcosm of what passes for discourse in our time.
- jimbokun 1y agoWhy should Cassandra be punished for making sensible decisions to keep her energy usage low?
- HDThoreaun 1y agoshe lives in a tiny apartment though
- jeffbee 1y agoThere's quite a bit of flim-flam in the video, but the key falsifiable claim is that residential electricity demand is not growing. I am looking at the EIA Monthly Energy Review and it appears that residential electricity grows at ~1% CAGR this century. Which raises the question of whether the bills are now due for past underinvestment in generating capacity.
- krunger 1y agoActually it's because there isn't enough solar and generation because of previous policies. Check out how Alex Albrecht got screwed doing solar in Los Angeles.
- jimbokun 1y agoThat doesn't excuse gouging consumers now to subsidize data centers for large corporations.
- HDThoreaun 1y agoYes it does. Prices are based off supply and demand. Demand is increasing but the government is making it prohibitively costly to expand supply so prices are going up. The solution is to generate more electricity, not stifle demand.
- Loudergood 1y agoThis has been obvious for several years now thanks to the crypto boom https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/18/1049331/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-cryptomining-new-york/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/18/1049331/bitcoin-...
- grim_io 1y agoI've got the solution! Digitize your brain and move into the data center. Can't recommend the show "Pantheon" enough.
- CyberDildonics 1y agoThis does not have anything to do with the current thread.
- grim_io 1y agoIf you move into the datacenter, you will benefit from the volume discounts on energy ;)
- gruez 1y agoThis video is unconvincing. The thesis of the video basically boils down to "AI companies are using electricity, driving up prices, and residential consumers are paying for it". However it neglects that most of the power usage is caused by the same residential users, who are getting something out of it. 80–90% of AI energy usage is estimated for inference (eg. generating responses on chatgpt), not training[1]. Moreover despite AI companies being unprofitable as a whole, they're making fat margins on inference[2]. Therefore it's reasonable to assume that most of AI electricity consumption that the video complains about is as a result of ordinary people using AI. Taking this into account, blaming AI companies for jacking up electricity prices in this context makes as much sense as blaming airlines for jacking up oil prices. They're only doing so because people are buying their services, and presumably deriving some sort of utility from it. [1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energ... [2] https://martinalderson.com/posts/are-openai-and-anthropic-really-losing-money-on-inference/ https://martinalderson.com/posts/are-openai-and-anthropic-re...
- carlob 1y agoYou are not taking into account the fact that data centers tend to be pretty concentrated geographically. If I live in an area that is trying to attract data centers by giving them sweetheart deals, my electricity bill is going to go up by more than my share in inference usage since those data centers will be used by people all over the globe.
- hdgvhicv 1y agoMany, people, probably most, are not using any inference in their lives - certainly not willingly or knowingly.
- carlob 1y agoOf course, for example me, the person you are replying to. I am an LLM vegan.
- silversmith 1y ago
- taeric 1y agoThis feels misleading to me. I accept that data centers generate more load for a system. Which will make the overall system need more maintenance, which is something that others paying into the system will also have to support. But, I'm not clear on why this is a hidden cost. Consider, if people get the new housing developments that they want, that would also add load to the system. This larger energy system will be more expensive to run, which will lead to higher costs. Adding houses would probably be even more expensive in the transmission maintenance costs associated. Any model you do that tries to prevent this is essentially rent stabilization for early members. And that has a pretty good track record of not being a good idea.
- drewbug 1y agoHow do you feel about homestead exemptions in general?
- bluGill 1y agoI'm in favor of them only if they are extended to renters. I don't know how to do this, but everyone should get a lower cost for their first home, even if it is an apartment. If you want a second home, apartment, campsite, or whatever additional place to dwell I'm fine with you paying a little extra for that luxury, but for your first home we should make it affordable.
- taeric 1y agoSame way I feel about any rules. Worth trying and seeing how they can get the desired outcomes. I should have said that rent stabilization may work out some day. Just it is not my expectation that it will, as it has a record of not. As such, I would expect some inflationary pressure on utility rates.
- RShackleford 1y ago[dead]
- ozim 1y agoSounds more like externalized cost that data centers should pay more for but it is spread evenly across all customers.
- yadaeno 1y agoI feel like the solution is for the state owned power company to add capacity to scoop up the additional revenue. This is quite literally an opportunity to advance society while generating more tax revenue and *improving* public services. Blaming tech for using power is regressive, the real issue here is bad energy policy.
- nathan_compton 1y agoWhy let a state owned power company scoop of the revenue if we could privatize it and then let rich people scoop it up?
- makeitdouble 1y agoThis sounds like "lines goes up" view of it. Adding capacity isn't free either, in particular on environmental costs and/or additional risks. We haven't been trying to reduce consumption for a few decades now just to be cute, the tradeoff just wasn't worth it.
- yadaeno 1y agoMaybe it is? The US has ample land and money to build out clean energy, there’s zero excuse not to be adding capacity. It’s literally the governments job to build out the infrastructure for society to thrive. Don’t blame technology for getting better, blame the government for not doing their job.
- makeitdouble 1y ago> The US has ample land and money The money part doesn't ring true given the current US political climate. That's not the president you elect when your future looks bright. > society to thrive Does society thrive on AI though ? And is the technology better ? Those are real questions. My answers would be no, we have better use for our resources. If we need to sacrifice for something, at least be it worth it.
- insane_dreamer 1y ago> add capacity to scoop up the additional revenue. they are; but Big Tech isn't paying the cost to add that capacity, because it's getting volume discount prices to attract them in the first place. So the utility has to raise prices on everyone else to cover the cost of adding the capacity. so essentially, all the other consumers are subsidizing the extra power needed for the data centers (instead of the data centers paying for it)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jollyllama 1y agoThe real reason is that fossil fuel plants have been offlined and decommissioned, and the reason this occurred is because they were made unprofitable by punitive regulation far more so than market forces.
- ac29 1y ago> fossil fuel plants have been offlined and decommissioned Coal is down, but there has never been more natural gas generation in the US: https://www.epa.gov/power-sector/power-sector-evolution https://www.epa.gov/power-sector/power-sector-evolution
- jollyllama 1y agoYes, perhaps I should have said coal.
- thelastgallon 1y agoWarren Buffett is going to be rich!
- GuB-42 1y agoI understand what you are meaning, but saying that Warren Buffett is going to be rich is like saying that the pope is going to be catholic.
- bob1029 1y agoThe best way to make the grid fair is to remove fixed rate accounting altogether. The reality is that all power must be delivered instantaneously. Any meaningful arbitrage (i.e., adding actual value to grid services) must occur within milliseconds. The ability to purchase contracts on power that hasn't been generated yet is what is driving all the volatility and exploitation. There is a reason that Griddy (variable rate wholesaler for consumers) had to be killed in Texas. The popular narrative is that they "fucked" their customers over in 2021. The reality is that anyone who had been using their variable rate system for more than 12 months (and made any attempt whatsoever to respond to demand signals) had easily compensated for the $9/kWH crunch that lasted merely ~72 hours. Most of their other customers who I talked to had no problem with the situation. There was a deliberate PR campaign (likely by the other retail electricity providers in the market) to make it seem like an unbelievably impossible situation for a normal person to cope with. Now it's illegal to have wholesale rates for consumers in Texas. We've gone two steps in the wrong direction.
- bluGill 1y ago> The ability to purchase contracts on power that hasn't been generated yet is what is driving all the volatility and exploitation. That is completely opposite of the truth. The ability to buy a contract is what allows power generators to get loans to build at good rates. Everyone wants someone else to take on the risk, when you buy a contract for power at some rate in the future you are taking on the risk that prices could go down. The generator then goes to the bank and can show that even if competition forces prices down they still are going to get that much from the contract and thus can pay off the loans. Power is complex and I just touched the surface of the truth.
- bob1029 1y agoThere are capacity markets that are expressly designed to get around these concerns.
- thelastgallon 1y agoAlso, crypto helps! Texas paid bitcoin miner Riot $31.7 million to shut down during heat wave in August: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/texas-paid-bitcoin-miner-riot-31point7-million-to-shut-down-in-august.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/texas-paid-bitcoin-miner-rio... Two of the biggest bitcoin mining companies in the world are battling it out in a Texas town of 5,600 people: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/31/bitcoin-mining-giants-bitdeer-riot-blockchain-in-rockdale-texas.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/31/bitcoin-mining-giants-bitdee... Cryptocurrency Mining in Texas: https://earthjustice.org/feature/cryptocurrency-mining-texas https://earthjustice.org/feature/cryptocurrency-mining-texas Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37516498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37516498
- ethagknight 1y agoTexas had to pay a bitcoin miner to shave load... that hurts, not helps? Helping would be a mandatory brownout for excessive users.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoRelated: Electricity prices are climbing more than twice as fast as inflation https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44931763 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44931763 Big Tech's A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44905595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44905595 The U.S. grid is so weak, the AI race may be over https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44910562 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44910562 AI is booming so are household utility bills https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44931763 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44931763
- vlovich123 1y agoIn the US people are complaining about electricity like it’s a scarce resource while China has drastically overbuilt energy capacity (solar and nuclear) and gives 0 shits about AI or crypto. One of these approaches seems better thought through.
- AlexandrB 1y ago> solar and nuclear And coal: https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-power-plants-reached-10-year-high-in-2024/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-...
- vlovich123 1y agoRight - because their nuclear power plant construction mechanisms are just starting to scale up and they need something to backfill baseload when solar doesn't cut it. Coal growth is still shrinking and will peak in 2030 at which point it will get squeezed out by all other energy sources.
- merman 1y agoFact- China is the number 2 bitcoin miner, and cares a great deal about AI and is only constrained by chip import restrictions
- satiated_grue 1y agoIs the increased electric bill offset by reductions in taxes? The answer looks like "probably". https://www.loudoun.gov/6188/Data-Centers-in-Loudoun-County https://www.loudoun.gov/6188/Data-Centers-in-Loudoun-County "Loudoun County is home to one of the largest concentrations of data centers in the world through which much of the world's internet traffic passes every day. The industry has helped to diversify Loudoun County's economy, which has included bringing new jobs and revenue streams to the county over the past 14 years that have helped to keep real property tax rates relatively low."
- mh8h 1y agoIn the same county, maybe. But electricity is a tradable commodity. The electricity price goes up for the neighbouring counties without the tax benefits.
- idiotsecant 1y agoI am an engineer at a large utility in the Pacific Northwest. My ratepayers pay very little for power, We generate with hydro which is very, very cheap. There are very few opportunities for more hydro. Every new MW we add is going to cost two orders of magnitude more per MWh compared with the existing stuff. We would not need to add capacity like this, except that we are being absolutely deluged with requests for enormous new data centers, which will require purchasing power from these very expensive sources. This will drive up prices for everyone. There's a lot of people in this thread that are confidently claiming things will happen in systems they barely understand. I'm here to tell you this will create a power affordability crisis in my region, and it hasn't even started yet. The effects won't be fully seen for years.
- jeffreportmill1 1y agoBecause of Trump, and just like Trump, this is a perfect storm. Unrestrained AI and crypto are causing a surge in demand at the same time Trump is spitefully and recklessly killing wind and solar installations and subsidies. Trump-licans - the party of mean and stupid and self-destruction.
- AlexandrB 1y agoLike any other industry, I don't care what the electricity cost of data centres is if they create actual value. This is no different than a factory that makes car parts - you need energy to make stuff. I think the part the bugs me is how over-hyped AI is, and there's a fear that all this electricity is being used as part of fundamentally unsustainable business models that will not prove sustainable long term. If that's the case, and we're overbuilding data centres what's going to happen to those buildings once the bubble pops?
- OrvalWintermute 1y agoThe energy costs of certain parts of Maryland are about to skyrocket, or have already risen dramatically, driven by datacenter demand, primarily but not exclusively from Northern VA. https://www.wusa9.com/article/tech/science/environment/data-centers-cause-electric-bill-spike-new-report-says/65-3af6bb57-4704-45c0-9fbf-aaf65daf9b69 https://www.wusa9.com/article/tech/science/environment/data-... https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MDOPC/bulletins/3ead2f8 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MDOPC/bulletins/3ea... https://www.thebanner.com/economy/maryland-energy-cost-virginia-data-centers-BXMSJU7XXVFGTDXVDWUWD7OPOM/ https://www.thebanner.com/economy/maryland-energy-cost-virgi...
- ethagknight 1y agoUnless the big data centers are entering into mandatory load reduction during high strain on the system, then theres going to be an increased cost to the little buyers. The tradeoff is that Utilities can upgrade their systems and improve uptime thanks to the higher base load. It's up to the utils to negotiate well against the big data players.. good luck on that with politicians breathing down your neck to secure a big win.
- marklor 1y agoAmericans are discovering the massive underinvestment in the electrical grid. When you live in San Francisco, you can experience several power outages during the summer, and it's perfectly normal to have a generator at home. If you live like me in France, you can go several years without a power outage. You don't maintain your infrastructure, so you pay ridiculously low costs. And then, you're caught up in reality, here, dominated by data centers. And it's the fault of the GAFAMs ;)
- jantuss 1y agoAmericans have to deal with the cost of living near data centres, and everyone on the planet has to deal with global warming. At least the AI companies are providing a free tier that almost anyone with internet can use.
- ViewTrick1002 1y agoThis ignores that the French have massively underinvested in the replacement for the nuclear fleet, and the maintenance of the existing one. Should we all pretend that half the French nuclear fleet was not offline at the height of the energy crisis? A large portion of the european energy crisis came from the French nuclear power not delivering. A large renewable buildout should be ongoing in France but wasting money on dead-end subsidies for new built nuclear power seems to be what the French people and politicans wants. We're seeing a huge number of closures coming in the next decades and the politicians can't even agree on the bonkers large subsidy program for the first 6 EPR2 reactors. Maybe targetting some new power on the grid by 2040? If we're lucky with the construction timeline, at a cool cost of ~20 cents per kWh excluding subsidies.
- beaugunderson 1y agoin Chelan County where I live they came up with a Large Load policy specifically to protect the rates of other local users... the large load customer gets short-term access to power and then has to source it elsewhere (with the PUD in the middle). Microsoft is here and apparently plans to source from Helion long-term which is building their first generator just down the street. they also have to pay for their own grid upgrades as needed. more information here: https://www.chelanpud.org/about-us/events-calendar/event/2025/06/05/commission-calendar/data-centers-and-large-load-contracts https://www.chelanpud.org/about-us/events-calendar/event/202...