Here's a counter-intuitive claim: adoption of data centers could make electricity *cheaper* for everyone, *if* we deploy battery storage widely.

https://www.volts.wtf/p/sooner-than-you-think-electricity

The main points of this argument are:
- A large portion of your electricity bill is a service fee for grid management, not the electricity itself.
- If we can buffer electricity with batteries, in dispersed locations on the grid, the grid will have substantial additional capacity, with no new wires.
- Adding these batteries doesn't cost much, as infrastructure development projects go.
- Bringing more paying customers on the grid without paying much more to increase grid capacity will bring the service costs down for current users.

There is nothing here about whether the additional electricity is generated from carbon-free or fossil sources. This is a separate important additional consideration. We know that wind and solar are cheaper than oil, coal, or gas (or maybe ties with gas) so renewable would reduce costs the most.

Impeccable logic. Flies in the face of intuition. Thoughts?

#electricity #electricitycosts #batteries

JoshiesWorld is looking for answers about electricity costs in some eastern U.S. states.

https://www.joshiesworld.com/questions-about-electricity-costs-from-joshiesworld/

#JoshiesWorld #Electricity #ElectricityCosts #ElectricityBill #Questions #Investigate

Anthropic is rolling out $50 B of AI‑focused data centers across New York and Texas, but the real story is how they’ll battle soaring electricity costs and grid limits. What does this mean for AI investment and regional power markets? Read on to find out. #Anthropic #AIInfrastructure #DataCenters #ElectricityCosts

🔗 https://aidailypost.com/news/anthropic-aims-curb-costs-it-launches-usd-50b-data-centers-ny-texas