Well of course they should pay for their own power!! They’re private companies! What am I missing here?
“ Data centers must pay for the grid upgrades they require and can’t siphon power from existing power plants, according to the bill. It also directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to update its rules related to transmission lines — which transport electricity — to allow data centers to reduce demand during peak energy hours. “
This seems reasonable to me.
They do pay for their power. The bill would require them to pay for grid upgrades that their usage makes necessary.
Well yeah, but my question was: why does this need a bill at all? By default they should pay for their own shit.
At least my provider, when they need to build a new plant or do capacity upgrades, they get the PSC to give them blanket increases in service charge or kWh-rate, on the basis that everybody contributes to the higher demand. Now we’ve got single customers claiming they want the full output of two or three power plants, and why should I pay the mortgage on those plants for 20 years? When the data center will be gone in 5?
The grid itself is public property serviced by contractors using public funds. Datacenters will overwhelm that grid without extreme improvements.
So unless they’re forced to pay for it, citizens will foot the bill.
I really hope this gets passed, but it sounds like something Trump’s buddies would be against.