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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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The data center provider. Why is this even a question?
So our utility came out and said they have to raise residential rates by a rather large amount, largely because so many data centers are demanding so much power they need to upgrade, so residential rates have to fund that..
Why raise residential tares and not commercial / industrial rates?
Oh, because businesses are subsidizes through taxes. Of course.
If you read the article, it's because power companies are monopolies and so we've regulated them rather harshly. They are often compelled to build infrastructure to meet demand, for example. We don't make the provider of a steel mill, housing builder, etc pay (generally).
And that's weird, right? It's one area of the market where we do a planned economy, and all states manage it differently. Now it's being stress tested in a new way.