Posts
1495
Joined
8/29/2006
Location
IL
US
Edited Date/Time
3/23/2026 5:37pm
My latest theory...
Remember when " We " ( ok actually we weren't even born so how is it we ) ... but we mowed right over the Indians , killed them ,trail of tears , Killed the Buffalo..." Suck.it " !!
A.I. Data Centers...water , power, Noise, Property values....paid for by Us not them...
Same thing... Suck it , Move !!
Can't stop any of this, ...Progress.
My power bill was 567$ last month. I have no idea why. Add 106$ for my shop and the only thing plugged in is a refrigerator and freezer.
In my state, they offer an average. Meaning, you pay one amount every month year-round. I wish most states would do this. I have a five bedroom home and granted it’s just me, but I pay under $200 a month every month. Otherwise, I would be screwed. Now they do base that average on your past usage so if my children were still here, I’m sure the bill would be much more but still seems like a great deal, no matter what.
You need to look at your usage and charges on your bill. Likely it was really cold in January and February and you have electric heat but it's worth breaking down the charges.
We are ALL the ones paying for the structure upgrade not the business or the power company
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
The bill also shows what the average cost per day was last February and it has more than doubled. It was chilly last month but im literally never home and live alone except for my son who is only there half the month and he is 5. That still does not explain the building being over 100$. I called the power company and the lady eventually broke down and said I was about the 15th person to call this morning and that they went up and there is nothing anyone can do.
Crazy.
You could look into another provider.
My January bill was $220. , 100.00 of it was all fees added on.
Probally the biggest Electric bill to date
( Natural gas heat )
The electricity mess in Texas was definitely something I don’t miss!
People can rightfully complain about government inefficiency in many cases, but quasi-governmental utilities are pretty damn good, at least in Central Washington. And this is for a ‘monopoly’, not an electricity ‘free market’ that would allegedly drive down prices.
Here’s the residential rate for Chelan County PUD. Of course, people still complain about their electricity bill being too high, but people are going to people no matter how good they have it…..
Im on union power in southern nc. They get their power from Duke power who covers the state. The other provider would be a fire and some hamsters on wheels lol.
It seems EVERY City is getting a data center lately. I'm not really sure why, seems nefarious to me. I'm sure we'll be looking back in 5-10 years and see where we missed it. Lots of Cities are being run over by these huge Corporations and having no say. They come in and promise no pollution, no water usage, no change in power consumption, jobs, and we end up with unbearable sound pollution, a water problem, skyrocketing power bills, and 10 new jobs for a 2 million sf facility.
The Decline of Western Civlization has a part 1 and a part 2. Are we seeing the start of part 3?
Hahahaha! Copied that.
We have several choices here that compete with each other for customers. All the power comes from the same place, but have different companies doing the selling.
Local government is very aware. Signing illegal NDAs and allowing zoning changes, tax abatements, etc for datacenters seems to be the norm now. The government has plenty of say - they just aren't representing the best interests of their constituents. Such is the norm in 2026.
dumb question, Who pays for the data centers? Where does their revenue come from? I really don't understand the big need for these or what they will do.
the company building the data center pays for the data center. could be a PE backed company you've never heard of, could be amazon. depends.
they make money buy selling (leasing) rack space or compute (or both)
the current "AI boom" is said to be driving this demand as it takes a lot of compute to run an AI LLM. if this demand is artificially inflated or not is yet to be seen.
New Big businesses are always brought into areas and even different states due to tax breaks given to them to bring them in.
The biggest problem is with the current infrastructure already not keeping up with current usage and theses centers are draining it even more so we will be the ones already paying for it.
Mr Global started telling everyone that this was coming a couple years ago.
Socialize the costs and privatize the gains. America, fuck yeah!!
Pit Row
Just put them in India where they already don’t care about their air or water quality.
Sandberms latest power bill in SE Washington. The home of hydro power, nuclear and windmills. Soon to be the home of a $5b Amazon data center.
What's that in the lower left corner...a 7% rate increase starting April 1?
Wait, you guys can choose your utilities providers? In SoCal (Temecula) I have to use Edison for electricity, SoCal Gas for natural gas and Rancho Water. There is no choice (unless I've been ignorant of other options for the past 20 years).
Never heard of that either.
We live right at the edge of two utility districts.
Thankfully we're just inside the boundary of the better of the two.
The other is notorious for outages. Some lasting a day or more, pretty much every time it rains.
As far as rates go, they are what they are.
TVA supplies the area's power, via hydro electric, and a nearby nuclear plant.
But it seems like they profit more from selling electricity to other states.
And we damn sure don't reap the benefits via lower fuel prices.
Thankfully we use propane for heating and cooking. So we don't see a ridiculous winter spike. We own the tank, so we can shop around for the best price when it's time to fill up.
We can get 2+yrs from a full tank.
You can change your carrier here or
" Lock In at a rate "
Locking in for the Next 3 years is what heavy users are hoping for
Texas is mostly all deregulated.
So "what I mean by that is" (😜) in my area, Oncor manages delivery, and the providers are the ones who manage the billing and whatnot.
So those guys buy huge amounts of energy and then sell it to customers allowing for competition.
If lightning blows up a transformer, that's still Oncor, if I don't pay my bill, my provider shuts the power off.
Does the Big Bend Co-Op actually own any generation sources, or do they just provide distribution and buy at bulk rate? The residential electric rate looks like about 3X that of Chelan County, but Chelan County actually has 3 hydro dams (Rock Island, Rocky Reach, and Chelan).
Check out Energy Ogre. For $10/month they scour deals and hook up subscribers to the best plans.
If I understand right they buy all the power from BPA, Bonneville Power Administration which runs the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers as well as the Columbia Generating Station (nuclear) out at Hanford. So they have purchase agreements with BPA. BPA website. https://www.bpa.gov/
I found this page interesting from the Big Bend website https://www.bbec.org/about-bbec/politics-issues/power-issues/
"The cost of Big Bend Electric Cooperative’s (BBEC) wholesale power is the largest expense BBEC incurs in its business operations. BBEC’s current power supply contract with BPA ends in 2028.
Power is becoming increasingly scarce across the nation as demand continues to outpace supply, this creates a volatile and complex power purchasing market where prices change by the minute and balancing the grid is exceedingly difficult.
As the world has gained in technological advancements, so too has the demand for electricity. Some of the advancements driving this increased demand include data centers, electric vehicle charging, crypto-mining, population growth, and many others. As a result, we are at a crossroads where demand for electricity is exceeding supply. In an effort to curb climate change, hasty and poorly informed government policies have decommissioned fossil fuel generating resources like coal and natural gas before sufficient viable replacement alternatives have been established. Unfortunately, this is creating a perfect storm that is threatening grid reliability and future power supply options...."
That could start getting really difficult, for sure. It's crazy living that close to all that hydro power and not being able to really benefit the way you would think. I always appreciated the low electricity costs in central Washington, but I certainly can't argue with those that think that the resources might should be spread out a little bit more than they are. You'd think that with the tech that they have developed to mitigate the impact on fish and such that there would maybe be a regional push to either replace some older dams or upgrade some of the current ones to provide energy over a larger area.
Since I've been living in a new house with solar, my electric bill has never been more than about $120. That's in the summer with the AC blasting. Most months it's $40-$50, and some months the utility owes me money. I like it.
My 2nd-fondest wish, right behind disbanding the HOA, is to add more solar panels and sever my connection to the electric grid. You can't do that here, however; California wants you to be dependent on their morphine drip.
Right on.
Thanks, I will.
Post a reply to: History repeats itself ?