Fears over higher rates as Georgia moves to provide more electricity for AI datacenters
Source: The Guardian
Georgia is facing the largest demand for electricity in its history, driven by nation-leading datacenter construction.
The Georgia Power company has made an unprecedented bid to the agency that oversees the utility for about 10 additional gigawatts of energy in the coming years enough to power 8.3m homes, at an estimated cost of nearly $16bn, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
But those huge numbers are not primarily for homes or local businesses in Georgia. Instead about 80% of the companys ask is driven by datacenters, primarily for artificial intelligence, according to Tom Krause, spokesperson for the states public service commission, or PSC.
It is the largest increase ever considered by the commission in a multiyear plan and comes as the Atlanta metro area led the nation in datacenter construction last year a phenomenon playing out across the US and increasingly sparking protests and pushback. The PSCs five members will be charged with deciding how much energy the state needs, when its needed and the best way to meet that need, Krause said.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/19/georgia-electricity-datacenters
You sow what you reap
IronLionZion
(50,377 posts)any "I did that stickers"? His administration is aggressively pushing AI as a top priority.
bucolic_frolic
(53,291 posts)It was nonplussed. Google and ChatGPT will be the big players, and we'll all be paying $100 a month for an AI subscription, except for a specialized tech AI for business which will be $500 a month.
Unload your wallet.
Miguelito Loveless
(5,360 posts)period. As far as electricity rates, I immunized myself against them years ago when I switched to solar.
ThreeNoSeep
(247 posts)What percentage of world energy consumption does AI represent?
About 0.2%
How many people does AI serve? Multiple billions each day when it comes to just Google maps. 378 million more for LLMs alone.
With about 1 billion personal automobiles in the world, what is personal automobile energy consumption compared with AI? personal automobile use represents 15 percent of the world's energy consumption, meaning personal automobiles (not the rest of the transportation system) uses 7500% more energy that all other AI combined.
Energy use is the least of our worries when it comes to AI.
People misusing the technology to harm others, collapse of the economy for lack of work, or the AI becoming independent and inimical to humans is much more worrisome.
mahina
(20,160 posts)Miguelito Loveless
(5,360 posts)EV use is not. Also, as more people switch from ICE to EVs, it will increase demand on the grid for charging, but demand will fall from refineries, pipelines, tank farms, and gas stations (every EV bought, means 500-800 gallons unburned/not refined/not pumped annually). Another issue is that AI demand is 24x7x365 impacting the grids constantly, whereas demand to charge EVs tends to be overnight, during times of low demand, when lots of generation capacity is available. And finally, 1 in 5 EV owners also install solar, which means way less demand on the grid since the solar electricity generated can recharge, not the grid.
Add to this the massive amount of water AI uses, the noise and light pollution, and the existential economic threat on top of the existential threat to humanity, and it is no contest.
LudwigPastorius
(13,833 posts)Their mountain-sized piles of money aren't yet high enough to express their intelligence and virility.