[kube-system]

The data centers being built due to the AI bubble are predominately increasing costs for public utilities. Many localities are having to make significant investments to keep the lights on and increasing rates for everyone.

If half of these datacenters go out of business next year, it will get even worse when mom and pop will be left with the bill for these projects.

[fintechjock]

I don't see a widespread issue in keeping the lights on, outside of the Lake Tahoe fubar.

Considering utility rates, I would happily pay more for utilities in the short term to have 30+ years of lower property taxes. The data centers property taxes would go to paying for that buildout, and over time it's a great deal for consumers. That said, I'm in Texas so the property tax issue is more prevalent than it would be in New York.

[kube-system]

Lake Tahoe might be the only area literally with issues keeping the lights on, but many more are facing rate hikes and debt spending to build out infrastructure and keep up with increases in demand for utilities.

The prevailing idea is that we're currently in a bubble, especially when it comes to AI hyperscalers, and that the tax revenue will decline when the bubble pops.

Also, not all localities have updated their public utility regs to appropriately assign the costs of infrastructure projects to these new projects. Many, like NoVA have just recently added new utility rate classes specifically for data centers to attempt to do that. In other places, these costs are often are being split among the existing utility customers.