The authors' causal assessment depends heavily on the instrument-validity assumptions. The study examines a historical period that may not resemble the coming AI-driven load boom, and national average effects obscure important regional impacts.
Also, some cities or counties are giving tax breaks and incentives for data centers to locate there, including reduced energy costs. The consumers pay for these breaks and incentives.
Exactly, AI DCs really got going in 2025-2026 so much so that even computer RAM doubled and tripled in price, the computer I built has outperformed my 401k in appreciation.
AI DCs are not the same as the standard cloud ones that we’re using when we use this site. They use much more power, there's studies out there that say the frequently cited trends are reversing, but it's always dependent on location.
True. Still, you can spread costs across more sales, lowering overall costs in a regulated market. The trick as I see it is managing demand during peak periods like 5-9 pm. If I had a data center I would want my own power supply. But if these private centers sell excess electricity back to the grid, don’t expect low prices unless regulations have provisions for this.
Using 2014-2024 study is like saying a couple trucks which sure they might drive at night and use the infrastructure that would otherwise be empty. Then you apply that to the current period with data centers where you’ve got an entire fleet of trucks that basically need several dedicated lanes. It’s not apples to apples. But I think you know that.
GPUs/servers are usually the primary electrical load. HVAC is a secondary but very significant load that scales with the heat generated by the IT equipment.
In older facilities HVAC could approach the size of the IT load.
In modern efficient hyperscale facilities HVAC is generally much smaller than the IT load.
GPU is around 50%. So do we criticize or block other business for their use of power? No, you wouldn’t want to argue that Intel is causing the rise of the price of electricity in the PNW because it isn’t true.
You're refuting your own (original) contention - That HVAC is the big power demand. Anyway -
There are at least three different percentages commonly cited:
GPU share of IT load
GPU share of total data-center load
Cooling share of total data-center load
In a modern AI training center, GPUs can account for roughly 50-60% of total electricity consumption, with the remainder going to CPUs and host servers, networking fabric, storage, power conversion losses, pumps/chillers/cooling and
Ok, so you’re saying data centers that are cooled by something other than electricity? Because to me the focus seems to be how do we reduce water usage and that tends to lead to higher power usage.
That’s not what I said at all. You said hvac not gpus. HVAC is used for cooling and you can use either water or power for cooling. Companies seem to be trying to cut their water usage which leads to more power usage. I’ve stayed right on the power argument. But why don’t we go back to your original point? Tell me about the data centers that run off of something other than electricity?
I’d be more open for to subsidizing US AI via my power bill if Chinese AI labs weren’t operating in the US and if we prevented our AI companies from selling their models to the Chinese.
You’re talking about the future but saying data centers did not raise your power bill now. And also the 2014-2024 study is a completely different environment from both a fuel supply perspective and a demand perspective than we are in now.
PJM offered a market analyst. The story you link to is from leftist Politico. PJM is another one of the NGO groups who are leveraging their own political power. What a dweeb!
If the utility passes on the cost of improvements to the residential user base required by the data center, then the cost increase is because of the data center. Data centers require increased Capex for the utilities that get passed on to everybody which results and increased rates for residential customers.
It would be good if they would build their own power generation because we have a very fragile grid. It would be good if they could provide emergency power if the grid went down.
As “renewables” have proliferated, the cost of power has gone up. Renewable power is not free. It is subsidized, mandated, backed up, transmitted, balanced, and paid for — at tremendous cost to consumers, large and small. At the same time, we are retiring baseload plants, the flywheels of the grid, at a record pace. Then we act shocked when the system gets more fragile. Now add massive new loads from EV chargers and data centers. The grid is already old. Much of it was paid for long ago, but it is also stretched, aging, and underbuilt for what politicians and utilities are trying to force through it.
And let’s be honest: power companies do not want data centers generating their own power. Full stop. They want that revenue flowing through their meters and across their grid. Self-generation threatens that model. So what could possibly go wrong?
Data centers are being used as the scapegoat. The real problem is bad energy policy, forced electrification, premature plant retirements, and a grid being asked to do things it was never rebuilt to handle.
I can tell you what greatly increased the utility rates in NJ in the past few years and it ain't data centers. It is utilities inserting DEI requirements (at a minimum of 30% DEI vendor/subcontractor) in EVERY construction contract as well as our illustrious governor of the State of NJ adding a carbon tax and the requirement that a percentage of electricity sold in the state MUST be generated via "green" scam energy means.
Gosh, isn't it great when we are able to save the planet from utter annihilation??? (Heavy sarcasm intended)
There's no evidence suggesting that "DEI contracting requirements" are a driver of NJ's recent electricity rate increases. To establish that claim, one would need data showing the percentage cost increase attributable to supplier-diversity requirements, how much of total utility capital spending is affected, and how much of those additional costs flow through to ratepayers.
The large 2025 increase was mainly due to record-high PJM capacity auction prices, growing electricity demand, slow addition of new generation, interconnection delays, and PJM market issues.
Yes, the PJM auction played a part of the increase. Plus factor in the closure of PSEG’s generating plants a few years ago, we have no “homegrown” power with the exception of Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants.
I was a civil contractor for 20 years in NJ, working for several utilities, part of which was during the initial DEI phase from 1999-2002. Profitable for me, being a WBE, but a costly joke on the consumer.
I then worked for a very large publicly traded electrical contractor for another 18 years that also contracted with NJ power utilities. I can assure you that being required to include DEI spend increased the cost of each contract by at least 5%, depending upon the size of the contract and the percentage of DEI spend included.
This is built in to EVERY contract issued by these utilities. The cost of each one might not be in the MMs but it all adds up to increased cost to the consumer.
Trump has addressed the issue of the power usage and has stated that the data centers need to build their own power source. If the Utility companies stand in the way of that I have no doubt he will pass a law to make it so. Much like the water source, data centers have a closed loop system for cooling. Yet the public outcry over water usage is being screamed from the hill tops.
One must take in to account that many complaints are being generated to rile the masses against them. Which in turn is to get the masses against Trump.
Are the increases real? Or are they artificially inflated to add to the discourse?
We live in one big generated lie. It’s imperative we sit back a bit and see what is true and what isn’t. These centers are investments in our future so I prefer to err on the side of caution.
I guess more demand amortizes fixed cost over a greater number of units sold, thus enabling each unit to be cheaper.
The calculation might not work when the demand exceeds what the existing plant (source of fixed costs) can supply. And, with regulatory burdens, I can imagine it takes quite some time to bring new generating capacity online. So it’s easy to imagine there will have to be some interregnum where increasing demand necessarily increases prices: that’s the market signal that increasing supply is becoming attractive.
Now, maybe the data centers will start to build their own nukes, in which case there might be business case to overbuild and sell the excess back to the grid. Maybe something like the Amazon Web Services model where Amazon realized it could sell its own internal software on a subscription basis sufficiently profitably that scaling up the “fixed cost” to meet demand could be done profitably.
Yes, California touts its green credentials, then imports oil from Asia that it no longer produces. As for electricity, we often have to curtail (dump) during the day due to unusable solar generation-often at a loss-then we import coal-fired electricity from Warren Buffets out of state plants at night. As for “cheap” solar and wind, where I live in California we pay around 45 cents per kWh, nearly triple the national average.
Competition in a free market is an amazing blessing for consumers. Command economies like Marxists and socialists advocate, destroy competition and raise prices.
The authors' causal assessment depends heavily on the instrument-validity assumptions. The study examines a historical period that may not resemble the coming AI-driven load boom, and national average effects obscure important regional impacts.
Also, some cities or counties are giving tax breaks and incentives for data centers to locate there, including reduced energy costs. The consumers pay for these breaks and incentives.
Exactly, AI DCs really got going in 2025-2026 so much so that even computer RAM doubled and tripled in price, the computer I built has outperformed my 401k in appreciation.
AI DCs are not the same as the standard cloud ones that we’re using when we use this site. They use much more power, there's studies out there that say the frequently cited trends are reversing, but it's always dependent on location.
That's a new one. More demand doesn't always bring lower prices. A shortage increase prices.
True. Still, you can spread costs across more sales, lowering overall costs in a regulated market. The trick as I see it is managing demand during peak periods like 5-9 pm. If I had a data center I would want my own power supply. But if these private centers sell excess electricity back to the grid, don’t expect low prices unless regulations have provisions for this.
Using 2014-2024 study is like saying a couple trucks which sure they might drive at night and use the infrastructure that would otherwise be empty. Then you apply that to the current period with data centers where you’ve got an entire fleet of trucks that basically need several dedicated lanes. It’s not apples to apples. But I think you know that.
So you are allowing only data centers that run off of electricity for your argument?
You’re aware of GPUs that run off of something other than electrons?
The issue with power use in Data Centers is HVAC, not GPU. 🤦🏼♀️
GPUs/servers are usually the primary electrical load. HVAC is a secondary but very significant load that scales with the heat generated by the IT equipment.
In older facilities HVAC could approach the size of the IT load.
In modern efficient hyperscale facilities HVAC is generally much smaller than the IT load.
🤦
GPU is around 50%. So do we criticize or block other business for their use of power? No, you wouldn’t want to argue that Intel is causing the rise of the price of electricity in the PNW because it isn’t true.
You're refuting your own (original) contention - That HVAC is the big power demand. Anyway -
There are at least three different percentages commonly cited:
GPU share of IT load
GPU share of total data-center load
Cooling share of total data-center load
In a modern AI training center, GPUs can account for roughly 50-60% of total electricity consumption, with the remainder going to CPUs and host servers, networking fabric, storage, power conversion losses, pumps/chillers/cooling and
miscellaneous facility loads.
Ok, so you’re saying data centers that are cooled by something other than electricity? Because to me the focus seems to be how do we reduce water usage and that tends to lead to higher power usage.
Hahaha. You lost on your power issue, so now you change your argument to water use.
Wrong. Hahaha
That’s not what I said at all. You said hvac not gpus. HVAC is used for cooling and you can use either water or power for cooling. Companies seem to be trying to cut their water usage which leads to more power usage. I’ve stayed right on the power argument. But why don’t we go back to your original point? Tell me about the data centers that run off of something other than electricity?
Copious obnoxious ignorance makes muse-land so much fun.
Get ready for your power bill to get jacked up. Thanks to Data Centers.
https://pulpitfortruth.substack.com/p/its-getting-hot-in-here
You are so obviously a China stooge that it's hilarious.
I’d be more open for to subsidizing US AI via my power bill if Chinese AI labs weren’t operating in the US and if we prevented our AI companies from selling their models to the Chinese.
https://pulpitfortruth.substack.com/p/watch-what-they-do
Bannon is a world class retard who will shill for anyone for the right price.
You’re talking about the future but saying data centers did not raise your power bill now. And also the 2014-2024 study is a completely different environment from both a fuel supply perspective and a demand perspective than we are in now.
I think the people in PJM might disagree…
https://www.eenews.net/articles/data-centers-drive-76-surge-in-pjm-power-prices/
PJM offered a market analyst. The story you link to is from leftist Politico. PJM is another one of the NGO groups who are leveraging their own political power. What a dweeb!
They were actually quoting PJM’s Independent market monitor.
You can find that here but I doubt you will since you’ve already resorted to name calling.
Truth hurts, I know.
https://www.monitoringanalytics.com/reports/PJM_State_of_the_Market/2026/2026q1-som-pjm.pdf
Why the big rush to build so many so quickly?
That’s the multi-billion dollar question. Why build so many so fast.
If the utility passes on the cost of improvements to the residential user base required by the data center, then the cost increase is because of the data center. Data centers require increased Capex for the utilities that get passed on to everybody which results and increased rates for residential customers.
It would be good if they would build their own power generation because we have a very fragile grid. It would be good if they could provide emergency power if the grid went down.
The writer is correct.
As “renewables” have proliferated, the cost of power has gone up. Renewable power is not free. It is subsidized, mandated, backed up, transmitted, balanced, and paid for — at tremendous cost to consumers, large and small. At the same time, we are retiring baseload plants, the flywheels of the grid, at a record pace. Then we act shocked when the system gets more fragile. Now add massive new loads from EV chargers and data centers. The grid is already old. Much of it was paid for long ago, but it is also stretched, aging, and underbuilt for what politicians and utilities are trying to force through it.
And let’s be honest: power companies do not want data centers generating their own power. Full stop. They want that revenue flowing through their meters and across their grid. Self-generation threatens that model. So what could possibly go wrong?
Data centers are being used as the scapegoat. The real problem is bad energy policy, forced electrification, premature plant retirements, and a grid being asked to do things it was never rebuilt to handle.
I can tell you what greatly increased the utility rates in NJ in the past few years and it ain't data centers. It is utilities inserting DEI requirements (at a minimum of 30% DEI vendor/subcontractor) in EVERY construction contract as well as our illustrious governor of the State of NJ adding a carbon tax and the requirement that a percentage of electricity sold in the state MUST be generated via "green" scam energy means.
Gosh, isn't it great when we are able to save the planet from utter annihilation??? (Heavy sarcasm intended)
There's no evidence suggesting that "DEI contracting requirements" are a driver of NJ's recent electricity rate increases. To establish that claim, one would need data showing the percentage cost increase attributable to supplier-diversity requirements, how much of total utility capital spending is affected, and how much of those additional costs flow through to ratepayers.
The large 2025 increase was mainly due to record-high PJM capacity auction prices, growing electricity demand, slow addition of new generation, interconnection delays, and PJM market issues.
Clean energy mandates did exert a modest effect.
Yes, the PJM auction played a part of the increase. Plus factor in the closure of PSEG’s generating plants a few years ago, we have no “homegrown” power with the exception of Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants.
I was a civil contractor for 20 years in NJ, working for several utilities, part of which was during the initial DEI phase from 1999-2002. Profitable for me, being a WBE, but a costly joke on the consumer.
I then worked for a very large publicly traded electrical contractor for another 18 years that also contracted with NJ power utilities. I can assure you that being required to include DEI spend increased the cost of each contract by at least 5%, depending upon the size of the contract and the percentage of DEI spend included.
This is built in to EVERY contract issued by these utilities. The cost of each one might not be in the MMs but it all adds up to increased cost to the consumer.
So interesting. Thank you.
Trump has addressed the issue of the power usage and has stated that the data centers need to build their own power source. If the Utility companies stand in the way of that I have no doubt he will pass a law to make it so. Much like the water source, data centers have a closed loop system for cooling. Yet the public outcry over water usage is being screamed from the hill tops.
One must take in to account that many complaints are being generated to rile the masses against them. Which in turn is to get the masses against Trump.
Are the increases real? Or are they artificially inflated to add to the discourse?
We live in one big generated lie. It’s imperative we sit back a bit and see what is true and what isn’t. These centers are investments in our future so I prefer to err on the side of caution.
I guess more demand amortizes fixed cost over a greater number of units sold, thus enabling each unit to be cheaper.
The calculation might not work when the demand exceeds what the existing plant (source of fixed costs) can supply. And, with regulatory burdens, I can imagine it takes quite some time to bring new generating capacity online. So it’s easy to imagine there will have to be some interregnum where increasing demand necessarily increases prices: that’s the market signal that increasing supply is becoming attractive.
Now, maybe the data centers will start to build their own nukes, in which case there might be business case to overbuild and sell the excess back to the grid. Maybe something like the Amazon Web Services model where Amazon realized it could sell its own internal software on a subscription basis sufficiently profitably that scaling up the “fixed cost” to meet demand could be done profitably.
Fixed costs are really stepwise-variable.
Don’t miss the fact that alternative energy sources are also being blocked. In WA state, the use of natural gas for homes is punished by raising taxes on it. OR has blocked nuclear power plants within Oregon borders, but the grid in OR uses nuclear power from plants in WA state. The zero carbon emissions legislation is the worst when it comes to driving energy prices higher. https://ankura.com/insights/natural-gas-restrictions-in-the-u-s-examining-the-state-of-play-policy-objectives-legal-developments-and-antitrust-implications
Yes, California touts its green credentials, then imports oil from Asia that it no longer produces. As for electricity, we often have to curtail (dump) during the day due to unusable solar generation-often at a loss-then we import coal-fired electricity from Warren Buffets out of state plants at night. As for “cheap” solar and wind, where I live in California we pay around 45 cents per kWh, nearly triple the national average.
Ouch.
No kidding!
Competition in a free market is an amazing blessing for consumers. Command economies like Marxists and socialists advocate, destroy competition and raise prices.
It seems that AI is in fact raising our power bill…
https://www.ft.com/content/14d2e591-7cd5-4456-904f-1b7fdc5cbc1a
This is great. As usual nail hit head. Thank you!
I know ours increased twice last year, as we prepare for one here.
That is a lie.