I'm not sure what the status is, getting hard to find out amid so much noise & public coverage that's just blathering heads mostly, but, for the longest time & in many places, data centers were getting charged at industrial rates for power, which is intentionally kept super low to encourage industry. The thought that they are paying vastly less as everyone else's prices goes up is a bitter detestable situation. I am nowhere near as anti-data center as most, I want these things actually, but it feels like it's such a strong example of elite revolt, of people being totally paved over by the rich and powerful, who have so effectively managed to buy out the system of governance in so many ways.
There's nuance of course, but in VA, in one county, 37 data centers account for 3GW of power.
They're getting that at those vastly discounted industrial rates. Meanwhile, their utilities are getting ready to foist nearly $20B of works to bring in about that same 2-3GW in from elsewhere because of capacity issues onto all their customers, residential and commercial alike.
"Nuance" is perhaps soft-balling it a bit, ha. Yes, MAE-EAST formerly MAE, the home of the internet, is indeed a bit of a data-center hotbed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAE-East
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Virginia also has a tax on electricity, targetting data centers. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2026/07/13/power...
I'm not sure what the status is, getting hard to find out amid so much noise & public coverage that's just blathering heads mostly, but, for the longest time & in many places, data centers were getting charged at industrial rates for power, which is intentionally kept super low to encourage industry. The thought that they are paying vastly less as everyone else's prices goes up is a bitter detestable situation. I am nowhere near as anti-data center as most, I want these things actually, but it feels like it's such a strong example of elite revolt, of people being totally paved over by the rich and powerful, who have so effectively managed to buy out the system of governance in so many ways.
There's nuance of course, but in VA, in one county, 37 data centers account for 3GW of power.
They're getting that at those vastly discounted industrial rates. Meanwhile, their utilities are getting ready to foist nearly $20B of works to bring in about that same 2-3GW in from elsewhere because of capacity issues onto all their customers, residential and commercial alike.
"Nuance" is perhaps soft-balling it a bit, ha. Yes, MAE-EAST formerly MAE, the home of the internet, is indeed a bit of a data-center hotbed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAE-East
There's some good books on this rise too. Internet Alley, for example, https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262516686/internet-alley/