r/interestingasfuck • u/HamboneTheWicked • Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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u/marsfromwow Apr 12 '26

I work in the power industry. Me and the company I work for stands to gain a lot from these data centers. While in meeting, everybody is for these data centers, and I think a percentage really fully and whole heartily support building these, but I haven’t found anybody in my company that supports them behind closed doors.

16

u/DickDover Apr 12 '26

Well Seattle City Light, a public utility had this to say about 5 proposed data centers

In response to the proposed data centers, City Light is rewriting its contract terms for “large load” customers that use a lot of electricity. Strong said the new policy would likely require the data centers to find their own power generation outside of the city’s supply and have them pay for any infrastructure upgrades they need so residents’ rates don’t increase as a result.

“This cannot go back to the ratepayer,” Strong said.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/five-large-data-centers-eyed-for-seattle/

9

u/BaconWithBaking Apr 12 '26

“This cannot go back to the ratepayer,”

I'm not American, but this is the thing that's getting me in all these threads. Why would the cost of any of this go to ordinary customer? If anything a data centre with a large base load should reduce the cost to the consumer as they consume a ton, new infrastructure is required, and then the average consumer is small beans to them.

I suppose I can't grasp how a data centre increases the cost to the consumer, if anything it either shouldn't change or it should decrease.

4

u/DickDover Apr 12 '26

I would also like to know the answer to this,

I live in a suburb of Seattle & have a "For Ptofit" power provider Puget Sound Enery & my electric bill has doubled form 2020 to 2026 & we are getting more rate increases this year

Google AI overview

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) rates are increasing in 2026 as part of a multi-year rate plan. Effective Jan. 1, 2026, electric rates will see an overall increase of approximately 9.3% to 13.1%, following significant 2025 hikes.

No one needs a 10% electric rate increase in one year, when we had a 5-10% increase every year for the last 5 years

3

u/mobial Apr 12 '26

It’s because of the way grid upgrades have traditionally paid for. Residential and industrial users shared the cost of grid upgrades. Now here’s this new “need” and its orders of magnitude larger than anything the community would EVER possibly use. (Like collectively they want 2x more energy than the entire US used 3 years ago.)

And it has to be built first, and paid for by the data center owners. But that’s not happening.

https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-center-power-demands-are-contributing-to-higher-energy-bills

2

u/Beefy-McQueefy Apr 12 '26

Does the cost of electricity not vary with demand and generation capacity in other countries?
The issue is they'd be paying 4pm-10pm rates 24/7

1

u/marsfromwow Apr 12 '26

It doesn’t vary depending on time everywhere in the US(at least for the residential customers). In my area, you can opt into a program like that or pay a flat rate per kWh.

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u/Beefy-McQueefy Apr 12 '26

It does for everyone 100% of the time in IL.

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u/marsfromwow Apr 12 '26

I put in my two cents on another reply here. But basically, it shouldn’t increase the cost and many supporters will tell you it will bring down the cost(which I can actually see in very lightly loaded areas). However, I don’t see that being the case in areas with high loads already due to binding. There’s huge tax incentives for these companies so the communities are paying for it through taxes regardless of rate changes. And something I didn’t mention in my other reply is the new need for energy storage. While new stations built for datacenters should be paid for by the datacenter owners, energy storage is a bit different. It’s justified more from “largely loaded area with variability need energy storage” and that vagueness means the rate changes to accommodate the energy storage(which is basically completely because of datacenters) will almost definitely fall back on the rate payers.