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BrianKrebs
@briankrebs@infosec.exchange  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

From Bloomberg (doesn't appear to be a paywall story)
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

"Data centers are proliferating in Virginia and a blind man in Baltimore is suddenly contending with sharply higher power bills."

"The Maryland city is well over an hour’s drive from the northern Virginia region known as Data Center Alley. But Kevin Stanley, a 57-year-old who survives on disability payments, says his energy bills are about 80% higher than they were about three years ago. “They’re going up and up,” he said. “You wonder, ‘What is your breaking point?’”

"It’s an increasingly dramatic ripple effect of the AI boom as energy-hungry data centers send power costs to records in much of the US, pulling everyday households into paying for the digital economy."

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-electricity-prices/

Bloomberg.com

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.
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Kermode
@gemlog@tilde.zone replied  ·  activity timestamp 18 hours ago

As a person who is not in the habit of buying electricity at wholesale, how much per kWh is normal around Virginia these days @trebach ?

I use a tiered rate https://app.bchydro.com/accounts-billing/rates-energy-use/electricity-rates/residential-rates/tiered.html here in BC, Canada, although tweaks like time-of-day and flat rates are offered as well.

The least I can pay is 11.72 cents (8.41 cents USD) per kWh and the most is 14.08 cents (10.1 cents USD) per kWh.

@briankrebs

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Jaakko Niemi
@liiwi@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 19 hours ago

@briankrebs Electricity price is more and more defined by price of natural gas:

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/natural-gas-turbine-manufacturing-is-responding-to-market-incentives/

IER

Natural Gas Turbine Manufacturing Responding to Market Incentives

Rising demand for power from artificial intelligence (AI) and increased electrification, as well as pullbacks from wind and solar developers,…
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Petra van Cronenburg
@NatureMC@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp 22 hours ago

@briankrebs In France, a new report about this soaring use of electricity will be published this evening, here is a summary by the Shift Project: https://theshiftproject.org/app/uploads/2025/09/Synthese-RF-PIA-1.pdf Summary of the summary: No state is prepared for what happens by the industry.

It's in French but the whole report will be available in English later on this page: https://theshiftproject.org/en/

In French - the whole study: https://theshiftproject.org/app/uploads/2025/09/RF-PIA-1.pdf

#AI #LLM #datacenters #carbonFootprint #electricity #powerBills #climateCrisis

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Gerry McGovern
@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green replied  ·  activity timestamp 20 hours ago

@NatureMC
Thank you for this, Petra.

@briankrebs

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Petra van Cronenburg
@NatureMC@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp 20 hours ago

@gerrymcgovern you're welcome.

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Okuna
@Okuna@social.tchncs.de replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs dont complain. Now they can create videos with ducks on trampolines. This is worth the higher prices, isn’t it?

SCNR

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Magical Cat
@koteisaev@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs I suspect similar tendency would discover a research on such effect of bitcoin (and other similar crypto) mining centers as well.

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System Adminihater
@systemadminihater@cyberplace.social replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs We (the actual datacenter industry) have been telling everyone this since the hyperscale bullshit began.

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Alan Miller :verified_paw: 🇺🇦
@fencepost@infosec.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs if I owned a single family house (and had the liquidity) I'd absolutely be considering grid independent battery backed solar (but connected so it could draw from the grid if required). If I had a surplus I'm sure I could find a used crypto mining rig that would make sense as long as the power was effectively free.

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Sterling
@AG100pct@infosec.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs
I'm not sure this is widely understood.
I was trying to explain this to my brother, so thanks for the article.

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vestige
@vestige@sleepyhe.ad replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs

Our power bills have doubled over the last year. This is normally the cheapest time of the year, and now it looks like the middle of winter.

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zl2tod
@zl2tod@mastodon.online replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs

NZ's far-right government, in a masterpiece of foresight, signed up for two huge AI datacentres shortly to be completed here. Between them they will use more than our largest electricity user, an aluminium melter,.

The government has announced this morning that it will support the development of facilities to import natural gas to support the increased demand.

Our power bills will also soar to accommodate this inflating bubble of artificial stupidity.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019006527/govt-announces-plan-for-challenges-facing-energy-market

RNZ

Govt announces plan for challenges facing energy market

The government has announced its plan in response to the challenges facing the energy market. Business editor Gyles Beckford spoke to Corin Dann.
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2xfo
@RnDanger@infosec.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs
AI isn't free, folks, and it's gonna get as bad for us as we let it

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Paul Chambers
@paul@oldfriends.live replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@briankrebs Here in Ohio, along with 12 other states, the wholesale capacity auction rate went for record highs at the PJM auction. They blame data centers.

As a result, our bill jumped around $150 per month while using less energy

https://oldfriends.live/@paul/115042193238047887

The capacity rate saw an 800% increase.
https://oldfriends.live/@paul/114781201095718312

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