Big Tech wants to plug data centers right into power plants. Utilities say it's not fair
Source: AP
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Looking for a quick fix for their fast-growing electricity diets, tech giants are increasingly looking to strike deals with power plant owners to plug in directly, avoiding a potentially longer and more expensive process of hooking into a fraying electric grid that serves everyone else.
Its raising questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether its fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. Federal regulators are trying to figure out what to do about it, and quickly.
Front and center is the data center that Amazons cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, is building next to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania.
The arrangement between the plants owners and AWS called a behind the meter connection is the first such to come before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For now, FERC has rejected a deal that could eventually send 960 megawatts about 40% of the plants capacity to the data center. Thats enough to power more than a half-million homes.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/power-electricity-amazon-microsoft-power-plants-data-centers-grid-f4763f73bc112425e18f30618dff0039
Clouds Passing
(3,418 posts)Think. Again.
(20,752 posts)madville
(7,531 posts)Data centers, artificial intelligence and bitcoin mining have their own power plants in China. Coal, hydro, solar whatever, they have huge power requirements.
Irish_Dem
(62,144 posts)Power centers paid for by the public, but the public waits at the end of the line.
dickthegrouch
(3,774 posts)Without the traffic problems
🤣
Irish_Dem
(62,144 posts)dickthegrouch
(3,774 posts)No longer exists because of tax cuts and entitlements to the rich, who is going to need the data????
Or when everyone near that plant freezes to death in a severe winter storm, or gets cooked in severe weather during the summer because theres no electricity for heaters or A/C respectively, who is going to tend all those useless computers?
Lets have a little planning beyond our noses before making stupid decisions.
Turbineguy
(38,649 posts)A dark spot form space. Now who wouldn't want that?
Autumn
(46,997 posts)to plug in their data centers. They will convice the utilities that it's unfair to make big power users help pay for the grid.
We are nothing.
dalton99a
(85,611 posts)hueymahl
(2,698 posts)Nuclear, preferably. Gen 4 reactors, like pebblebed reactors, should be fast-tracked for construction.
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
madville This message was self-deleted by its author.
mathematic
(1,542 posts)I suppose if you think so you should remember that next time you hear somebody complaining about the middleman taking a cut and doing nothing.
The actual solution to this "problem" is to build more electricity generation. It's not to give utility companies free money for doing nothing.