this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
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Y'know if I was the exec of a bloodsucking electricity company, I'd be explicitly putting something in my terms and conditions that commercial AI data-centre use of my company's supply is to be charged double or triple, and that undeclared use will be subject to heavy legal repercussions and surcharges.
There has to already be precedent for specific commercial uses of resources being treated differently from others. And if not, commercial versus non-commercial use may be a close enough precedent.
Likewise, if I'm the oil company or builder of power plants, generators and the like, I'd be putting a similar clause in.
This would then be one of those situations where desires align, however different the goals.
Electricity companies already do this with demand charges and peak-usage pricing for commercial customers, and many utilities are actually starting to implement AI-specific surcharges because of the insane power density these facilities use (like 5-10x more per square foot than tradtional data centers).
Nah, my local bloodsucking electricity monopoly (SE Wisconsin) will be charging the new datacenters the lowest possible per kWh rate, and due to the huge expected demand just got approval to build new natural gas power plants that ALL of us government mandated customers get to pay for.
You know, for the demand that would never exist if we weren’t subsidizing the brand new datacenters.
It’s a complete scam.