Reply to Why are we paying for data centers' electricity usage?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When you go on the internet, [b]use ChatGPT,[/b] upload images to the cloud, etc, you’re using a data center. You’re paying for it sooner or later.  The demonization of data centers is frankly ridiculous. In fact. A lot of data centers are contracting with behind the meter generation so they are outside the wholesale electricity generation market. [/quote]

We aren't demonizing data centers generally- that increase has of course been steady as the internet has grown.  What we are demonizing is the massive increase in the past 4 years which is almost solely because of the growth in these "AI" systems which are completely inflated by ridiculous VC money.  The problem is that the increased demand they have cause in the past 4 years is way out of proportion of previous growth, and it has strained all these systems, and the strain has flowed back through the utility systems and to all of us rate payers.  Turn off the "AI" data centers (which will happen naturally in the next year or two as the bubble bursts) and we will all be fine.[/quote]

So how much are you paying "unfairly"?  You have no idea, do you?  Just a vague sense of disgruntlement because the buildings are large and ugly.  I'd wager virtually no consumers have the faintest idea how rates are set by public utilities commissions, and equally no concept of a rational basis for asserting whether they should be anything other than what they are.[/quote]

Actually do have a pretty good idea how rates are set, although not an expert.  I think the main problem is that the systems aren't designed to have this much extra demand this quickly, and it's harder than you think to properly allocate those added costs to these data center owners.  Like, how much of a new set of transmission lines you had to build 10 miles from a data center do you allocate to it? It may be that most of the reason for the new lines is because of the data center, but there's not a simple way to calculate that, so they revert back to the usual system, which is basically spreading it out system-wide.

I don't really have an issue with the public utilities per se- like I said, the system isn't used to this kind of spike in demand. I more have an issue with the money people because they are dumping so much ridiculous money into this stuff that there are bound to be weird outcomes as you stretch the balloon out so much.

What's going to be really annoying is 5 years from now when you have a bunch of these buildings with almost worthless servers in them (because they degrade and get replaced by new chips quickly), with no demand to keep the lights on.[/quote]

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