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Data centers need electricity, utilities need years to build – who should pay?
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
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Technology
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As pointed out in the article, because datacenters are pretty fast to build, new power plants need to start construction roughly 1 year before the datacenter starts construction. But that leaves the utilities with alle the risk, unless a robust agreement is in place with the datacenter. What happens if several power plants start construction, but the AI bubbles bursts, and the datacenters are cancelled?
Then we get the actual capacity we need at the prices we can afford. Our power grid is disappointing. All that “extra capacity” could stop the random brown outs, rate spikes, and provide some extra capacity for the future.
Are you suggesting we use government resources to benefit the masses? Whose side are you on anyway?
Damn the man, save the Empire.
Not if you make the data center pay for it.
If a consumer wants a utility upgrade, the consumer pays all costs upfront. I know this because my neighbor works for the power company and was trying to get gas lines run to our neighborhood. The cost the power company would charge us was hundreds of thousands which even divided by the number of homes meant it would never pay off vs outlr existing cost for propane delivery.
(Made my day that somebody read the article! I feel like these technical pieces flounder in obscurity.)