The Trump administration is planning to propose that the nation’s largest power grid operator hold an emergency auction in which tech companies would bid to have new power plants built, according to people familiar with the matter.
The directive, expected Friday, would be an unprecedented attempt by the federal government to check rising electricity prices within PJM Interconnection, a 13-state power market spanning from New Jersey to Kentucky. The build-out of data centers there in response to the artificial-intelligence boom is straining the grid’s capacity and has resulted in substantially higher costs in several of the grid operator’s recent power auctions.
The emergency auction would allow tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new power plants in deals that would be worth billions of dollars, some of the people said. Bloomberg previously reported on the plans for the auction.
PJM, home to the largest concentration of data centers in the U.S., has come under strain in recent years as tech companies seek to connect even more of them to the grid. Power plants there have been going out of service faster than they can be replaced, which has put a squeeze on power supplies as more electricity-hungry facilities come online.
Read More
Trump to Push Plan for Tech Companies to Fund New Power Plants
byu/_hiddenscout instocks
Posted by _hiddenscout
10 Comments
Amzn Long
Good. They use an outsized percent of the power and are responsible for costs going up for everyone. These trillion dollar mega corps can afford to pay more. MS saw this coming which is why I think they decided to buy their own nuclear reactor.
Even if these companies end up paying more it’s not going to impact their bottom line. Plus I guarantee the government both fed and state gives them money.
Okey, so datacenters “behind the meter” it is, $NUAI long.
Every MW that never hits the grid is the cheapest MW PJM doesn’t have to serve.
IPPs (VST, CEG, TLN, NRG) down, turbines/equipment/services to build new (GEV, PWR, etc) up.
Um, no.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EconomyCharts/comments/1qee6rd/us_data_centers_will_consume_nearly_10_of_the/
Surprisingly, calls.
15 year agreements?
They’ll be great for consumers today, but horrible in years 5-15. No megacap is going to sign a bad deal.
Is there a power plant ETF?
Something needs to be done, but I highly doubt tech companies are going to start building their own power plants. The capex outlay for that asset is very high, the plant will get old and need upkeep, and whenever the need for the extra power ends it will be almost completely worthless.
Also, the future is not burning fossil fuels for energy.
No way