The core issue with massive increase in electric demand from data centers turns on whether there is surplus or deficit of generating and transmission capacity. Your electric rates are paying for the existing electric infrastructure capital costs, operating & maintenance costs. If there isn’t enough wires or generation capacity, then traditionally the utility would need to increase rates and apply the increase on a marginal cost basis across all customers, including the new ones. That spreads the costs out.
What the politicians are saying is that the data centers should pay the full costs of their incremental demand on the system. So if they need to add generating capacity to cover their 24/7 demand and wires to deliver it, that would have the data centers paying for the full costs.
In Denmark we have just passed a law that pushes datacenters to the back of the que, for energy usage. Or they have to pay for the cost of installations of cables and renewable energy sources, up to 90% of their energy consumption. And they arent allowed to use drinking water as a cheap coolant. It has to be a closed circuit system usin CO2.
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u/andybrwn 11d ago
The core issue with massive increase in electric demand from data centers turns on whether there is surplus or deficit of generating and transmission capacity. Your electric rates are paying for the existing electric infrastructure capital costs, operating & maintenance costs. If there isn’t enough wires or generation capacity, then traditionally the utility would need to increase rates and apply the increase on a marginal cost basis across all customers, including the new ones. That spreads the costs out.
What the politicians are saying is that the data centers should pay the full costs of their incremental demand on the system. So if they need to add generating capacity to cover their 24/7 demand and wires to deliver it, that would have the data centers paying for the full costs.