New Tennessee law requires data centers to pay for their own electricity infrastructure

[u/Severus-Snape-DaGod]

https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/new-data-center-electricity-infrastructure-law/amp/

[u/Sockoflegend]

Absolutely bizarre this has to be a law and not just how it works like it does for everyone else 

[u/Jah348 → u/Sockoflegend]

Yeah I feel like I need a lawyer in here, this doesn't really make sense to me. Do data centers generally just get free energy?

[u/Otagian → u/Jah348]

They don't, but the city and/or utility are the ones who pay for the actual infrastructure. Transmission lines, substations, etc.

EDIT: Worth noting that this still can cause prices to skyrocket, as usage goes way, way up and the utilities want to keep that down to reduce maintenance or having to build new power plants.

[u/Jah348 → u/Otagian]

I misread the title and frankly didn't read the article. I see now, they have to update the infrastructure to handle extra support they need.

[u/ptear → u/Jah348]

See, a PR move could have been these data centers paying and having local electrical infrastructure improved or some obvious benefit to local residents. Right now all it has been is negativity where I couldn't believe people buy ads now about how much they do not want data centers.

[u/dwehlen → u/ptear]

To be fair, a lot of these DCs are getting free power and water as incentives from the local/state governments, which is fragging insane.

[u/shallah → u/dwehlen]

that is what a lot of local communities do for any larger business. When walmart came to town they put in the electric, built roads, drainage, probably more I can't recall. Justified it for the pitiful amount of jobs it created despite it was long proven walmart drives out small businesses which make more jobs.

all large businesses should have to pay for their electric transmission, road, and other infrastructure upgrades. It isn't worth the tens or hundreds of thousands in incetives for the handful of permanent jobs they bring

[u/1oser → u/dwehlen]

Show me a DC getting free power 😂

[u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn → u/1oser]

Free? I haven't seen that yet. However, I have seen some really good deals on price per kWh, and I've seen cities build infrastructure projects to support new industrial sites, with no guarantee of being repaid that could survive bankruptcy proceedings.

Source? I don't want to give you one because the company I worked for struck such a deal for a manufacturing site, then filed for bankruptcy and got out of commitments. I assume this left the town and its electricity customers holding the bag. Our bag. How could it not? Anyone who wants to be paid back when a company files for bankruptcy has to get in line behind the top investors.

[u/Competitive_Touch_86 → u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn]

All industrial consumers of electricity rates get great deals compared to a residential customer. The details vary, but it should be significantly lower than the cost of a similar kWh delivered to a residential customer. Because it costs much less to provide such users.

I can't speak for all states, but the states I operated in it was trivial to know beforehand what your per-kWh cost was going to be at a given usage. The rate card is published and set by law. If you used 50k gWh in a given month, you paid just as much as the next guy using the same - for generation at least.

The variable bit was capacity charges, transmission, interconnect charges, load shedding credits, etc.

[u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn → u/Competitive_Touch_86]

I think that's fine for rates, but getting the electric company to build the infrastructure, then not using it (and therefore paying for it) and leaving residents with the bill is unacceptable. That's what we're at risk of if these AI companies promise to build data centers all over the country and then the AI bubble pops or they were merely "scoping out" locations and not committing to them. There is a situation in which the AI companies stimulate new infrastructure and actually pay for it, and that will lower rates for us eventually, but I think it's unlikely.

[u/dwehlen → u/1oser]

I'll be honest, I've seen it a lot, but I can't produce a source.

Oh, lawd, am I the disinformationist?!

[u/1oser → u/dwehlen]

hahaaa! Appreciate the honesty. There's more FUD going around re:DCs than I've seen on any other topic, and I've been around the block a few times

[u/nanobot_1000 → u/1oser]

https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/how-you-subsidize-big-tech-with-your-electricity-bill/

https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Harvard-ELI-Extracting-Profits-from-the-Public.pdf

This research paper from Harvard explains in depth the various mechanisms and contract vehicles that energy utilities use for incentivizing datacenters, including signing special deals under NDA and without regulatory oversight that in some cases are presumed to be at or below the cost of generation with the losses subsidized by residential ratepayers in the form of assesments and rate increases, as energy utilities have been established through litigation to have a long history of engaging in such unscrupulous and anti-competitive behavior.

Again, the actual numbers are not public as they refuse to share the terms of these special contracts, but the rate at which utilities are signing them with tech conglomerates along with correlated increases in residential electric rates raises cause for concern.

I believe this is what the poster above was getting at, but also that below cost is not "free", and also separate from capital improvement expenditures from bringing new generation & transmission capacity online - which is more often cited how the general public is subsidizing energy for datacenters, along with a few other strategies for socializing costs that the paper details. In totality I believe these to be legitimate concerns.

[u/OrganicDigitalArt → u/dwehlen]

Honestly man, the whole world is like this right now. Nothing is real unless I see it with my own eyes in person. Apart from that I do my best to get oppositional news sources for multiple angles and cut everything down the middle. Historians are going to have a field day trying to understand these times.

[u/2024-YR4-Asteroid → u/dwehlen]

This is just a lie… like what…

[u/webguynd → u/ptear]

They also could have helped break up the local broadband monopolies and built out free or at least heavily subsidized multi gigabit internet for everyone within the municipality. Maybe even offer heavily discounted compute for residents & local businesses. It'd be a marginal cost to the companies operating these data centers, and a PR win for them.

[u/LolitaOPPAI → u/ptear]

Corporate doesn't give incentives to non shareholders you silly goose! You think this is 1930?

[u/JJJBLKRose → u/Jah348]

In addition, they fish around for towns and municipalities that will happily help cover the costs, this seems more aimed to forbid that and force them to figure things out themselves in Tennessee.

[u/VanGrants → u/Jah348]

dude. come on.

[u/Nu11u5 → u/Otagian]

Then they should be on the hook for offsetting the increased demand.

[u/Dugen → u/Nu11u5]

This. Make them pay enough so we don't pay more, or don't let them build.

[u/shallah → u/Nu11u5]

also water as well as power

[u/kashmir1974 → u/Otagian]

All that should be factored in and built into the data center's contract/bills/etc before they get power. The company executives get to keep all the profits while my electric bill goes up by 40%?

[u/VivaLaMantekilla → u/Otagian]

I guess we should pay for what we use.

[u/VaderPrime1 → u/Jah348]

Y’all can’t even read titles anymore, let alone the article. This is for infrastructure not the power usage, they’ve always paid for that. This is for if they’re building in an area that needs infrastructure built to supply the building, they will be required to pay for it.

[u/mrjackspade → u/VaderPrime1]

Y’all can’t even read titles anymore, let alone the article.

These are the people driving online discourse around AI. The kind of person who says something, gets 2000 upvotes, and everyone repeats it verbatim for months.

[u/Bad-Briar → u/Jah348]

A data farm was proposed in my area. The refrain was that they would pay for all of their power, so no problem for comsumers, right?

Except that data centers need huge amounts of power. Much more than the local infrastructure was set up to supply. And, along with other data centers opening in the state, would cause more power generation facilities to be needed. Guess who gets to pay for that in my state.

Already, a rate increase is in the works. They expect consumers to cover the cost of added power generation facilities.

This is not ok. We need to go to these public meetings en mass, and demand the data farms (which exist because they make money) pay enough, and the power company return enough to us, to lower our rates for the life of the data farms.

We need to demand things like this because our power companies don't work for us. They work for their stockholders. We get screwed unless we stick up for ourselves.

[u/WhiteWinterRains → u/Bad-Briar]

which exist because they make money

Just a small point of order here though, they actually don't.

Not the AI ones being scaled up right now to an insane degree anyway. They're part of an elaborate con being run in an industry that's hundreds of billions in the red in terms of cash flow.

t e c h n i c a l l y the company operating the data center maybe makes money short term if it's not being directly built and sold on to one of the mega corps which it often is, but a lot of that is incredibly fragile too since demand could drop off at a moments notice, or any ongoing revenue is a lease-to-buy that's going to go tits up in 4-5 years, and these companies are adverse to making their balance sheets look bad which is why a lot of should-absolutely-be-criminal accounting is going on.

That's not to say you shouldn't demand they build out infrastructure at their expense which is then controlled by the state to improve the electrical grid.

But this may in the end be one and the same policy position with just forcing them out entirely (a very good idea also), since they can't actually afford to spend unlimited money on this shit.

It just seems like it because bribing the fuck out of corrupt local politicians and the like is pocket lint compared to the cost of these AI DCs, so there's a lot of visible cash flying around.

[u/KallistiTMP → u/Jah348]

They don't. They do usually get a better rate than the general public does because they have more negotiating power.

The way it works in practice is the local electrical company takes all the tax money, uses the absolute minimum amount possible to keep the crumbling infrastructure just barely under the point at which people start rioting over the forest fires and heat stroke/freezing deaths, and then give all the rest of the taxpayer money over to their shareholders, which is mostly billionaires and hedge funds owned by billionaires.

Then, a datacenter comes in and asks for an assload of electricity. They say "yeah sure, we can definitely sell you an assload of electricity!" and are absolutely lying through their teeth.

The datacenter people then do some research to determine how badly they're lying through their teeth. If it's only a big lie and not a humongous lie, they sign a contract, expecting the power company to completely miss their delivery contract but only blow past their delivery deadlines by a few years.

The power company then starts panic-building on top of the existing dumpster fire infrastructure, which doesn't go well. They pass the new development costs, and the "fix the shit we blew up trying to panic-expand our dumpster fire infrastructure" costs on to consumers.

Then the datacenter finishes getting built several years later, only two years behind schedule. They ask the power company if they can turn it on, and the power company is 4 years behind schedule but say it's safe to turn on half the datacenter, and the other half will be safe to turn in in 6 months (which it won't be).

People yell a lot and threaten lawsuits, but know they can't do shit because you can't just put a datacenter in your pocket and walk somewhere else with it. So they turn half the datacenter on, it breaks a bunch more shit, and the electrical company raises consumer prices again to try to force poor people to turn off their AC's.

The timeline gets pushed back, the datacenter company keeps the threat of suing the electrical company into oblivion looming, and at three years behind schedule they finally get the system to run stable at half capacity. The electrical company has jacked up their consumer prices by 400% and gotten a lot of forest fires named after them, so to handle the peasants with pitchforks they gracefully drop their prices by 0.1% for 6 months and spend a few million dollars on PR advertisements talking about how they're working tirelessly to fix the problems, becausethey care about all the dead peasants they're racking up for profit.

The shareholders take their massive checks, making sure to triple dip from commercial customers, residential customers, and literal direct taxes that they can assess thanks to owning the local government.

Then it basically just repeats over and over again. Welcome to peak Capitalist Efficiency™.

[u/garathnor → u/Jah348]

its one thing for like a new small store or even a walmart to get free infra hookups, thats just a few bits of wire and maybe a new transformer or two

a data center or things of similar scale require entire substations to be built as well as new lines run for miles, its multiple millions of dollars, not just 50-100k

thats not counting usage costs or power disruptions during construction

[u/zxern → u/Jah348]

They usually get a discounted rate vs residential and the infrastructure hookup at a discount.

[u/mr_bots → u/zxern]

Idk if it helps or hurts but that’s generally true for all the big electricity users and not just data centers.

[u/Icy_Fish_2154 → u/Jah348]

Data centers usually pay incremental costs, driving up the cost for everyone else. Often with tax cuts and power prices well below what you pay. You are subsidizing corporations that don't pay taxes.

[u/SirDouglasMouf → u/Jah348]

You should check out how greystar apartment high rises handles utilities. No idea how there isn't a class action law suit for every single development

[u/Morsexier → u/Jah348]

I just want to say, I work in this space, and the real issue for this vs a residential person, is two fold (beyond all the absolutely ridiculously bad policies around data centers in general). But lets say this was a huge manufacturing plant (which would offset some of the "bad" by bringing in hopefully 5-10k jobs) is that:

1. The more power you use, the better your rate can be.
   
2. Commercial being more "predictable" has better rates.
   
3. Combination of 1+2 means even if we make them pay for everything, they could conceivably be getting power at 6-7c a kWh, vs a home maybe be as high as 15-20 right now, and thats only going up.
   
4. a. The reason this is possible is a company can enter into a long term contract for power, with the providing company offering a contract at whatever length (though generally 1-3 years) and hedge the power to provide price stability. Its is quite valuable to budgeting to be able to plug in 7 cents regardless, see this last Jan\Feb, where some people were paying maybe triple their normal electricity rate. You can do this if you live in a large enough building in a city, meaning a 150 apartment building can pool their meters into one rate, and lower the rate for all.
   

The only way to ACTUALLY solve this, is for anything like a data center to have to fund power generation. This is why Bloom Energy is such a huge stock right now, and making me tons of money potentially.

But to put THAT in perspective, the President of my company who knows just about everything there is to know about Energy\Gas\the powergrid, had the opportunity to heavily invest in them years ago and passed because "it doesn't actually solve anything". Turns out when the powergrid prices triple, the breakeven company that BE was becomes insanely profitable.

Never expected it to go this high, and I sold a bunch awhile ago long before this current high.

[u/Old_Goat_Cyclist → u/Sockoflegend]

The trick is this: data centers are signing up to 5-10 year power purchase agreements with some notable exceptions like TMI and Microsoft. The utility can price the power appropriately to protect the rate payer and conceptually they could even depreciate the assets over the contract life (they do not). The issue is if the Data Center goes bankrupt (and many will) any undepreciated book value remaining adds to the cost basis for the public.

The is a specific issue with Musk’s Memphis data center in that it is served by horribly inefficient small gas turbines (all he could get). He consumes as much power daily as Memphis and what he wants is access to the TVA power and rates enjoyed by the community. He is looking to capture the TVA power and have the public put in new expensive gas turbines.

[u/translinguistic → u/Old_Goat_Cyclist]

Makes sense that they would choose Memphis to see just how much they can get away with.

Take a city with a lot of funding issues and that's lost a lot of their industry and tax base in general, that is located on a river, and that has a big population of disaffected "minorities" (Memphis's population is like 60%+ black, one of the highest percentages for major cities in the country) and others for whom the social contract they were lead to believe in just doesn't exist anymore.

In that kind of environment, there's a whole lot of room for companies with a massive amount of funds and a good legal team to operate in--especially when the city and Shelby County will acquiesce to things that might be ultimately self-defeating just to get some revenue coming in.

If that's the play, Detroit will probably be next.

[u/SellingFirewood → u/Sockoflegend]

"Pay for their own electrical infrastructure" meaning like the transformers, high line towers, and cable that the power company needs to run.

This would be like your power company charging a few thousand dollars because they needed to add an additional transformer and repair 3 electrical poles along your road to meet your power demand.

It's unusual, but reasonable because of the stupid amounts of power and grid infrastructure these things need.

[u/protox13 → u/Sockoflegend]

How it usually works is the costs are built into rates over time and upfront costs are born by the utility. But this assumes customers stick around. If the data centers are abandoned prematurely - which is a real concern given the AI bubble- then everyone else is stuck with the stranded costs for years. 

[u/1oser → u/Sockoflegend]

It’s not how it works for everyone else, but I don’t disagree with the legislation.

My biggest gripe would be that the assets sit on the balance sheet of the utility, and there’s no cost recovery mechanism.

[u/krazytekn0 → u/1oser]

The cost recovery mechanism is the for profit business of the data center. The fact that you’re more concerned about whether a data center has electrical infrastructure assets than if residential users have to pay greatly increased rates so that a data center doesn’t have to pay for any upgrades to the grid is really odd

[u/khari_lester → u/krazytekn0]

Thank you for nullifying that nonsense.

[u/Ok_Marionberry8779 → u/krazytekn0]

Data centers will never be able to turn a profit once venture capital money dries up. Companies are already balking at the real price and realizing there’s very little usefulness to justify it

[u/1oser → u/krazytekn0]

I don’t think you know what cost recovery means.

[u/Mr_Investopedia → u/Sockoflegend]

u/Sockoflegend this isnt how it works for everyone else. You don’t pay for a new power plant and transmission lines when you want to build a new home.

[u/SelectKaleidoscope0 → u/Mr_Investopedia]

an ordinary power plant serves thousands of homes. You might need more than one power plant of ordinary size to serve a single data center. The reason individual homes don't normally pay for transmission lines and power plants is each house is a minuscule fraction of the load for any given piece of infrastructure. At the scale lots of companies are trying to build them now, individual data centers need more electrical infrastructure than entire cites.

[u/Top_Willow_9953]

Make companies pay for the resources and services they consume? What a novel concept.

[u/supercali45 → u/Top_Willow_9953]

No fucking shit … corporations have bought up so many politicians

[u/Phlowman → u/Top_Willow_9953]

But that could cause the stock to lose 1.5% value for their shareholders, what are you some kind of monster?

[u/n1rvous → u/Phlowman]

Think of all the nanny’s they won’t have to help raise their damaged children.

[u/E1M1_DOOM → u/Top_Willow_9953]

It's not so much that they weren't willing to pay for what they consume. They are willing to.

The problem is that datacenters are going to use more than the local plant is accustomed to providing, so the cost to residents would balloon in order to build up the infrastructure needed to provide the added power.

This is less about data centers paying for what they use and more about them producing what they need themselves or funding the improvements needed to facilitate the power they need.

[u/benkenobi5 → u/Top_Willow_9953]

Socialism is bad… unless it’s for corporations then it’s ok

[u/existing_for_fun → u/Top_Willow_9953]

How is this needed in a law? That's what's so ridiculous.

Pay for what you use lol.

[u/FrankDrebinOnReddit → u/existing_for_fun]

It's not the typical way that electricity is charged. You pay for usage, not for extra substations and upstream infrastructure, those are just folded into the rates for everyone. These datacenters use a lot of electricity and forcing them to bear those costs makes perfect sense, but it's a change from how these costs were allocated before.

[u/ArgumentUnited5039 → u/FrankDrebinOnReddit]

Try building a house that is located past where lines are existing for utilities, telephone, etc. You’ll pay for everything it takes to get to your location.

[u/NeverInsightful → u/FrankDrebinOnReddit]

It’s not typical, but a new form of business has just sprung to life that will use as much power as town or city, and the companies have been plopping data centers everywhere they can find cheap electricity and forcing current residents to shoulder the burden of providing power.

It’s good this loophole is being legislated away.

[u/zxern → u/NeverInsightful]

This, there’s plenty of older empty manufacturing areas that are sitting empty with the available electrical infrastructure available, but then they don’t get the cheaper electric and water rates that then can get in rural lower demand areas.

[u/existing_for_fun → u/FrankDrebinOnReddit]

I hear you, but when we built a house, we paid 5k for a pole to be installed. We of course then paid for the usage of electricity.

I didn't need a law to tell me I had to pay for the pole.

So it's wild that a law is needed to force payment for even larger projects.

But yeah, I know it's needed. It's just stupid that it IS needed.

[u/FrankDrebinOnReddit → u/existing_for_fun]

Anything that serves that single house you'd have paid for. But that isn't enough for this, larger substations further upstream also need expansion. Typically that would be shared infrastructure.

[u/zxern → u/FrankDrebinOnReddit]

Yup but then that infrastructure was needed to serve multiple customers, not one individual customer.

There’s plenty of electrical infrastructure in industrial zones that could be used, but then they don’t get cheap water and power rates from the lower demand locations.

[u/HeKnee → u/FrankDrebinOnReddit]

Utilities have always had different rates for industrial consumers who caused demand spikes and other undesirable impacts to grid. However industrial customers negotiate their rates and pay about 1/2 the cost per kw.

The only difference is that our regulators are corrupt and let utilities pass more onto the consumer because businesses donate more money back to politicians who hire the regulators.

[u/Smith6612 → u/Top_Willow_9953]

The data center I used to work at did. Everything from the substation and utility interconnects to the electricity usage was stuff they had to pay for at market rate. Even had to spend millions to get our local Telecom providers to run Fiber cabling to the facility. 

[u/Severus-Snape-DaGod]

Tennessee's Data Center Cost Responsibility Act (HB 1847) requires new data centers with a peak electricity demand of 50 megawatts or more within their first three years of operation to pay for the electric infrastructure and grid upgrades they need, rather than passing those costs onto residential and other utility customers. The law was designed to prevent ratepayers from subsidizing large-scale data center expansion.

https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=HB1847&GA=114

[u/HarlanCedeno → u/Severus-Snape-DaGod]

Someone is going to figure out a way to build over that uses exactly 49 megawatts for exactly the first 3 years.

[u/GLaDOSdidnothinwrong → u/HarlanCedeno]

That’s already their workaround to avoid environmental permitting which kicks in with sources over 50MW. They’re desperate for 49MW turbines.

[u/Working-Glass6136 → u/GLaDOSdidnothinwrong]

Ridiculous. Make it 1 megawatt.

[u/vhalember → u/HarlanCedeno]

Yup.  Or someone will build 20 49MW data centers next to each other, instead a single 1 GW data center.

[u/asyork → u/vhalember]

20 companies that are all owned by one company and share a building!

[u/vhalember → u/asyork]

Yup.  And that one company is a shell company out of the Cayman Isles.

[u/Working-Glass6136 → u/vhalember]

Or Delaware.

[u/RedWhiteAndJew → u/vhalember]

That’s actually how data centers are already built. Multiple phases/buildings.

[u/vhalember → u/RedWhiteAndJew]

They are.  And in Tennessee I'm sure we'll see many first stage 49MW data centers for the first three years.  Second stage... No limits.

[u/babesboysandbirb → u/HarlanCedeno]

So, more lawmakers creating escape maneuvers for big corps so they can appear to be legislating for the people while not actually. It’s simple to require to pay for their own energy period.

[u/Nearby_Practice2793 → u/Severus-Snape-DaGod]

They did something similar in Florida. All this does is make the construction of that many more smaller sized data centers more common instead of monster sized data centers. The out come will be the same. Money hungry Tech bros will always find a loop hole. This is just a warm fuzzy feel good law to make people think they are in control. It has zero meaning or use.

[u/BitOne2707 → u/Nearby_Practice2793]

Our utility company and the state energy regulatory agency drafted a similar deal last year and it's actually working as designed. The state legislature is currently working to codify it statewide.

It's pretty reasonable and seems to work.

[u/Revolution-SixFour → u/Severus-Snape-DaGod]

This is a little hilarious because last year there was the big controversy where an xAI data center in Memphis was running their own gas turbines because they couldn't get connected to the grid, and everyone was complaining about the pollution.

[u/Amelaclya1]

I think this is the first time I've seen political news out of Tennessee that was actually good in years. Usually it's something completely unhinged.

[u/g-o-u-l-a → u/Amelaclya1]

Came to say the same

[u/Billlington → u/Amelaclya1]

This is like when Tennessee banned slavery in 2022, which seems absurd and everyone made fun of it but TN is now one of only 7 states in the union that bans slavery in any context - unlike the 13th amendment, which specifically allows slavery if you're convicted of a crime.

Considering how much of a pit this state is, it was surprising to see it pass with 80%(!) of the vote.

[u/LolitaOPPAI → u/Amelaclya1]

Tennessee is changing from the place to retire to metro prices without the metro pay, like much of Florida. Boomers having to move elsewhere now so ofc they're gonna pushback

[u/derzach]

Doesn’t help if companies like xAI (now SpaceX) install gas turbines on flatbeds to skirt environmental laws and pollute the surrounding area like they’re doing in Southhaven outside Memphis

[u/RoomyRoots]

Type of law that wouldn't be necessary in a serious country.

[u/jollyllama → u/RoomyRoots]

Many cities have something called a "system development charge" (or something similar) for new development which is designed to offset the infrastructure needs of new buildings. Unsurprisingly, developers hate these and they get brought up all the time as a reason for housing shortages (which I think is just an excuse from greedy developers, but I digress)

[u/Time-Industry-1364]

Next month’s headline:

BREAKING NEWS: “90% of all scheduled AI datacenter build projects suddenly cancelled as a result of a new Tennessee state law”

[u/RealWord5734 → u/Time-Industry-1364]

100% of planned TN datacenters moved to neighbouring states.

[u/makkattack12]

The problem with these laws is most of these companies are just using gas powered generators currently. No mandates to use any amount of green power will have very predictable outcomes

[u/McDonaldsnapkin → u/makkattack12]

What?

Data centers have generators for backup. No data center architect would ever build and allow a data center to run NOT hooked up to regular city power.

[u/makkattack12 → u/McDonaldsnapkin]

No, no. Not a diesel generator like you're thinking. A "portable" natural gas burning turbine. A mini version of a gas power plant.
XAI's data center in Mississippi called Colossus (for Grok)is using dozens of them to run the data center, all running on natural gas.

Look up "we saw what AI data centers dont want you to see" from the PBS Terra channel on YouTube. They do a really good job showing the concern that will remain even after these laws are passed.

[u/endlessfight85 → u/McDonaldsnapkin]

https://www.wired.com/story/xai-adds-19-new-gas-turbines-despite-ongoing-lawsuit/

[u/DeadMoneyDrew → u/makkattack12]

Yeah, I haven't read this new law, but I wonder if it puts limitations on the type of power source.

[u/sc00bk]

What a strange, positive thing to read about Tennessee legislation.

[u/g-o-u-l-a → u/sc00bk]

I guess they took their hoods off long enough to do some good.

[u/Imallvol7]

This is smoke and mirrors. There is still increased demand which increases all of our rates and does NOTHING to address the water usage, environmental damage, noise, and pollution. 

[u/DanielPhermous → u/Imallvol7]

There is still increased demand which increases all of our rates

If the supply increases the same amount as the demand, there is no price difference.

[u/Heavy_Carpenter3824]

How about we go a little farther too. You want to build a data center you pay all of the utility costs of the effected towns. Some of these sites are so big that covering the municipal needs is the rounding error now. You could easily give free water, power and heat to an entire town. I bet that would make them a lot more popular too. 

[u/TheVideogaming101]

Can someone with more knowledge on the matter explain why a private company would normally not need to?

[u/justbunnies → u/TheVideogaming101]

Because they’re giving kickbacks to the people in charge to avoid paying taxes and utilities.

[u/c10bbersaurus]

It better apply to existing centers, such as the xAI in Memphis....

[u/LongMelford]

…why the fuck don’t they already?

[u/vhalember → u/LongMelford]

You have to look at this through the eyes of a greedy company or billionaire.

Let's socialize the electricity cost amongst the taxpayers for our shit.

[u/Healthy-Caregiver997]

Absolutely need to micro grid.

[u/llahlahkje]

Without these laws AI firms are hemorrhaging money and attempting to gouge and needle customers who barely wanted to use them to begin with.

Laws like these make total sense and the losses to date despite the benefit of looting the public coffers and consumers’ pockets make it seem, to me at least, that AI needs at least a couple decades more in the oven.

[u/JOWhite63087]

As a TN resident, that'd be one of the smartest things they've passed cause I sure as hell ain't paying for their electricity.

[u/That_Jicama2024]

That just means they'll be running on their own propane / methane / diesel generators 24/7. That is not much of an improvement. I'd hate to have to live downwind from that.

[u/Vault_Master]

Starting to think data centers are the real reason why our electric bills have gotten way out of hand.

[u/Shitty-welder]

Wait so these assholes were expecting us to foot the bill?

[u/Background_Draft9364]

What the fuck were they doing before?

[u/PhilKesselsChef]

Rare Tennessee state law W

[u/dadoodlydude]

Unbelievable Tennessee of all places passed this. Proud of my home state.

[u/Chemi_calls]

Do they pay for their own water as well given the ridiculous amounts they use

[u/quothe_the_maven]

Unless they’re required to actually build new power plants, this won’t fix the problem. It’s a bandaid on a gaping wound. The power lines and transformers aren’t really the problem.

[u/beccadot]

Believe it or not, Tennessee has some large users, like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a generator in the Tennessee Valley Authority. They have experience in large demands and these data centers should be no different. They should pay their own way.

[u/hipster_kitten]

Shocked to see a sensible policy coming out of the Tennessee legislature. I thought all they were good for was gerrymandering and kicking every single democrat off of their committees.

[u/norwhal8]

What a concept

[u/Wraith693]

Is anyone else shocked Tennessee was the first?

[u/justbunnies]

Won’t someone think of the guys who are about to make billions off destroying America by taking jobs, telling people what to think, and poisoning our water???

[u/GottaBeFresj]

& WATER! We can't allow them fo waste out precious resources

[u/Deeingchicka]

What about the water?

[u/Sr_DingDong]

What's the catch?

There's no way TN is ahead of the curve on something progressive....

[u/BallsOutKrunked → u/Sr_DingDong]

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1tv84pf/comment/opg6ppl/

[u/cbarbour1122]

There should be a law limiting how many there are period especially since they’re consuming so much water and other resources.

[u/LeeKingbut]

Now how to pay for water?

[u/IcySparks]

Is there an abundance of water there too?

[u/HopelessBearsFan]

This feels like the creation of a moat to keep smaller players out.

Regardless, as a taxpayer and a payer of monthly utilities in the state of Tennessee, thanks.

[u/Fess_ter_Geek]

Well it appears the broken clock TN Legislators have partially struck the correct hour.

Credit where its due, I reckon.

[u/Wise-Operation247]

Common sense legislation. Now do water infrastructure

[u/Commercial_Wind8212]

They should have to run on renewables

[u/Sartres_Roommate]

As long as they aren’t consuming non-renewable resources; this is the way

[u/Adept-Mulberry-8720]

Every state should do that to protect the public!

[u/Icarus-rises]

Its almost like there are two tiers of existence

[u/bobood]

Yeaa, watch then put up inefficient, polluting, onsite generators everywhere and carry on. The hype is fueling the relentlessness expansion.

[u/vacuous_comment]

Now mandate that it be renewables and a factor 2 their projected load.

[u/Lord-Glorfindel]

How dare they ask data centres to (flips through notes) ... pay for their own expenses!

[u/anonymous_lighting]

i am a fan of this but unfortunately there’s 47 other states the data centers will be built now

[u/pleschga]

Common sense isn't so common, I guess.

You kind of wonder how much of a kickback the officials who enter into such agreements are getting....

[u/NotaContributi0n]

The thing is- even if they pay for it, it will raise the price for everyone else. Supply and demand

[u/DanielPhermous → u/NotaContributi0n]

If the supply and the demand go up by the same amount, then the price doesn't change.

[u/honestly_dishonest]

Data centers remind me of those alien movies where they show up, drain the earth of all its precious resources, then move to the next planet.

Except the AI companies are just going to drain a city then abandon the building and build a new one somewhere else. They'll keep draining the life out or each city till there's nothing left.

[u/Mother_Airline_6276]

Here we go. Make these fuckers pay for what they want to leach and all of the sudden they aren’t so thirsty.

[u/silviazbitch]

Why would any governmental body pay a cent to subsidize those things?

[u/gramathy]

"ok but we'll just contract that we pay $.01 per kwh then"

[u/numbersev]

alternative link:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/tennessee-law-requires-data-center-180458079.html

The law prohibits electrical utility companies from raising customers' rates to support data centers.

When data centers go in, everyone's electricity and water bills go up. Some lose access to both periodically. Rents can go up to facilitate builders and employees.

[u/JBHedgehog]

It took them HOW LONG to pull their heads out of their a$$es and figure this out?

HOW LONG???

[u/Humble_Chipmunk_701]

Good step. But more needs to be done. It pays for the grid connection costs. Utility providers still have to supply them with power, which data centers get cheaper rates on.

[u/MovieGuyMike]

It’s a start. Too bad they’re going to be on the grid and causing prices to skyrocket.

[u/Doctah_Whoopass]

Shiawase decision incoming

[u/sparklingdinoturd]

Cool...

What about the water they gobble up, pollute, then dump back into the ground/reserves?

What about the noise pollution?

[u/independent_mind_7]

Sounds like common sense

[u/protox13]

How it usually works is the costs are built into rates over time and upfront costs are born by the utility. But this assumes customers stick around. If the data centers are abandoned prematurely - which is a real concern given the AI bubble- then everyone else is stuck with the stranded costs for years. It's not like they are generally getting handouts, though maybe they'll get special rates or other incentives to build in a given location. 

[u/IHartRed]

Private nukes incoming

[u/Unfair-Ad9415]

Who the fuck was paying for it before?

[u/AntonChigurhWasHere]

What a novel idea. For profit Companies paying for their own utilities. Mind blown

[u/Promature]

The fact that a law needed to be enacted for a corporation to buy their bills for the resources they consume is the surest sign of the times.

[u/shinjikun10]

Surprised, I thought the tech companies bought up the politicians and told them what to do...

[u/aemfbm]

Don't worry guys, just stay the course, it's going to start trickling down any day now

[u/NorthVA-Star99]

My electricity bill is going up each month with data centers growing in the area

[u/flyingtiger188]

The problem is a lot of data centers are building out gas generators on site, so now instead of a big heat producing warehouse in your back yard, there is a big heat producing warehouse and a power plant in your back yard.

[u/DaughterOfBabalon_]

Rare Tennessee W

[u/Big_Bookkeeper1678]

I am surprised that Maga-see is one of the first states to push back this way. After all, to be as Maga as the Volunteer State (what a joke of a name for a state as vile as Tennessee is politically), you would think that they would be kissing the ass of the wealthy elite and offering people to 'volunteer' to walk on treadmills until they die to provide power to the almighty AI.

[u/the_blackfish]

The usage shouldn't be subsidized either.

[u/-_--_-_--_----__]

Next headline: AI companies pull out of Tennessee.

[u/Ambil]

This should be a no brainer across all states. 

[u/EarSuspicious2767]

i think they still just, shouldn’t build them. they’re so bad for the surrounding humans/animals and give off irritating sounds.

[u/MindfulPresence728]

Lol surely this is just setting them up to pay a fine instead of their bills

[u/ImpossiblePlan65]

Imma send this to my state legislature and be like, hey, dumbasses, we need this.

[u/Big_Lab_111]

This 100% needs to be federal, make them build green energy infrastructure

[u/Invisico]

Trying to appease the peasant masses.

[u/nonlinear_nyc]

It’s crazy that we need to legislate it.

[u/Cats_Dont_Wear_Socks]

That's nice. Now what about water?

[u/YouMonkeyFunker]

A data place in Dallas had turbine generators out back. They said on hot days when the wind wasn’t blowing they would get a call to go off grid so system doesn’t blackout. They didn’t do that for free. The island Bezos and tom Brady live on just snuck a bill through Florida’s house to make another city to take their sewage for free. Wild

[u/Working-Glass6136]

Tennessee? *rubs eyes* Nah, must be Hennessy...

[u/ArmyofThalia]

Can we acknowledge that this happened in Tennessee of all places? I am genuinely surprised

[u/Zolty]

Now this is sensible legislation.

[u/Bleezy79]

I never thought Tennessee would be a front runner on something like this but here we are.

[u/Kantankoras]

I’m afraid of an irony here, where the data centres lobbied for this, to make better infrastructure for itself 

[u/MrMuf]

Clean coal incoming

[u/luigis_left_tit_25]

What about all the water they're gonna use and all the heat they're putting into the environment?

[u/Lore72015]

Bahahahahha

[u/PersonalityMiddle864]

How are they gonna make their own water?

[u/MiddleOwn5557]

We're gonna get Fusion tech tomorrow now

[u/swimzone]

It makes sense that any industrial outfit should pay for its own elec. Infrastructure.

[u/Lumbergh7]

Can anyone explain why they don’t already?

[u/DownHouse]

The bare fucking minimum. 

[u/eljefe3030]

Seems like a no brainer to me. And they hardly do anything good for the local economy as far as I understand it.

[u/MelanieAntiqua]

Wow. Never thought I'd see a title start with "New Tennessee Law requires" and have what follows that be something actually good.

[u/Prize_Ninja_8742]

Are they responsible for water shortages, too?