Datacenters are in the news. They are power hogs and regulated and unregulated utilities are struggling to keep up with the demand.
A hot issue has been whether datacenters have to connect to the grid, like all others, or can get preferential treatment for connecting to the powerplants directly (i.e. pre-grid).
FERC has ruled for the latter - i.e. datacenters can connect to powerplants directly. They can pay nominal fees to grids, but not their regular overhead or rates. Consumer electricity rates may go up as a result.
https://apnews.com/article/power-electricity-ai-power-plants-data-centers-grid-6f52e60c4924f634a21fb5f35d68f29b
Comments
https://www.binance.com/en/academy/glossary/colocation
While I would like heavy consumers of electricity to bear a good portion of the distribution infrastructure costs, there's something to be said for not paying for something you don't use. If you go down to the reservoir for water (and pay for that water, including filtering and other treatments), should you have to pay for the water mains that deliver water to other customers?
As I see it, the bigger problem is that the data centers stress the power generation system. Increasing capacity is expensive. This is why power companies offer time-of-day rates - they shift demand from peak hours thereby reducing the peak capacity needed. And why the data centers should pay a much higher rate for their electricity than do retail or even most commercial customers.
The reference (I'd say homage) to Johnny Quest can be found at 19:50-20:00 in this episode:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8j53ug
I sent the Dailymotion link to my 32 year old son, he will get a big kick out of it.
https://www.adultswim.com/videos/the-venture-bros/jonny-quest