Energy supplier abandons Lake Tahoe residents to serve data centers
Energy supplier abandons Lake Tahoe residents to serve data centers
能源供应商为服务数据中心，放弃太浩湖居民
The tourist and ski resort town of Lake Tahoe must scramble to find a new energy supplier by May 2027—the result of a Nevada utility company saying it needs the power capacity in part for new data centers. The resulting energy crisis impacts 49,000 California residents who live near Lake Tahoe, nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains on the border between California and Nevada. 作为旅游和滑雪胜地的太浩湖镇必须在 2027 年 5 月前匆忙寻找新的能源供应商——起因是一家内华达州的公用事业公司表示，其电力容量部分需要用于新的数据中心。这场能源危机影响了居住在加州与内华达州边界内华达山脉中太浩湖附近的 49,000 名加州居民。
Lake Tahoe’s local electricity provider, California-based Liberty Utilities, has been obtaining 75 percent of its power from the Nevada-based company NV Energy. But the latter has said it will stop providing power to the Lake Tahoe region by May 2027, according to extensive reporting by Fortune. 据《财富》杂志的深度报道，太浩湖当地的电力供应商——总部位于加州的 Liberty Utilities，此前一直从内华达州的 NV Energy 公司获取 75% 的电力。但后者已表示，将在 2027 年 5 月前停止向太浩湖地区供电。
Nevada’s fast-growing data center development is one of the main reasons given by NV Energy for ending its energy supply agreement with Liberty, according to a Liberty filing with California regulators. Fortune highlighted data from NV Energy’s own planning documents showing that a dozen data center projects in northern Nevada could drive 5,900 megawatts of new demand by 2033. 根据 Liberty 向加州监管机构提交的文件，内华达州快速增长的数据中心开发是 NV Energy 终止与 Liberty 能源供应协议的主要原因之一。《财富》杂志援引 NV Energy 自身规划文件中的数据指出，到 2033 年，内华达州北部的十几个数据中心项目可能会带来 5,900 兆瓦的新增电力需求。
Such data center demand has also spurred NV Energy to sign contracts with tech companies to secure additional power-generation sources. Amazon recently agreed to support the Nevada utility company’s deployment of 700 megawatts of “low-carbon energy” for Reno data center operations, including 100 megawatts of geothermal energy, according to Data Center Dynamics. 这种数据中心需求也促使 NV Energy 与科技公司签署合同，以确保额外的发电来源。据 Data Center Dynamics 报道，亚马逊最近同意支持该内华达州公用事业公司为里诺（Reno）数据中心运营部署 700 兆瓦的“低碳能源”，其中包括 100 兆瓦的地热能。
However, NV Energy representatives pushed back on the idea that data centers are the main culprit behind the decision to stop supplying energy to the Lake Tahoe community, telling Fortune that it was part of a long-term transition predating the AI boom. After NV Energy initially sold its California assets to Liberty in 2009, it struck a series of temporary agreements to keep providing power to Lake Tahoe until Liberty could secure another energy supplier. Now, for whatever reason, NV Energy has decided it cannot keep extending such agreements. 然而，NV Energy 的代表反驳了数据中心是停止向太浩湖社区供电的主要原因这一说法，他们告诉《财富》杂志，这是人工智能热潮之前就已制定的长期转型计划的一部分。2009 年 NV Energy 将其加州资产出售给 Liberty 后，曾达成一系列临时协议，继续为太浩湖供电，直到 Liberty 能够找到其他能源供应商。现在，无论出于何种原因，NV Energy 已决定无法继续延长此类协议。
That leaves Liberty scrambling to find a new energy supplier as it plans to offer a replacement contract for any bidders capable of meeting California’s renewable energy requirements. 这使得 Liberty 必须匆忙寻找新的能源供应商，并计划为任何能够满足加州可再生能源要求的竞标者提供替代合同。
Seeking solutions
寻求解决方案
The situation is further complicated by the fact that “no single regulator oversees the entire chain from power generation to customer bills,” according to Fortune. California residents of Lake Tahoe pay rates approved by California state regulators, but the Liberty grid that services them sits under NV Energy’s authority and is fully reliant on Nevada power transmission lines. 据《财富》杂志报道，情况之所以更加复杂，是因为“没有单一的监管机构监督从发电到客户账单的整个链条”。居住在太浩湖的加州居民支付的是由加州州政府监管机构批准的费率，但为他们提供服务的 Liberty 电网却处于 NV Energy 的管辖之下，并完全依赖内华达州的输电线路。
NV Energy is constructing a new $4.2 billion transmission line, called Greenlink West, that could help Liberty access a wider pool of energy suppliers. But as Fortune points out, the transmission project is scheduled to become operational by May 2027, which would be cutting it close for Liberty and Lake Tahoe’s needs. NV Energy 正在建设一条耗资 42 亿美元的新输电线路，名为“Greenlink West”，这可能有助于 Liberty 接入更广泛的能源供应商。但正如《财富》杂志所指出的，该输电项目计划于 2027 年 5 月投入运营，这对 Liberty 和太浩湖的需求来说时间非常紧迫。
Lake Tahoe’s woes may currently be an outlier, but many other US communities are grappling with energy supply issues and other associated costs of data center development—a Gallup poll from March 2026 found that seven in 10 Americans opposed AI data centers in their communities. Public opposition to data centers has coalesced into “the most bipartisan issue since beer,” according to a Milwaukee-based comedian quoted in The New York Times. 太浩湖的困境目前可能只是个例，但许多其他美国社区也在努力应对能源供应问题以及数据中心开发带来的其他相关成本——2026 年 3 月的一项盖洛普民意调查发现，十分之七的美国人反对在他们的社区建设人工智能数据中心。据《纽约时报》援引的一位密尔沃基喜剧演员的话说，公众对数据中心的反对已经汇聚成了“自啤酒以来最能达成两党共识的问题”。
Nearly half of data center projects are facing delays and data center moratoriums, with industry executives citing issues such as labor shortages and power constraints as key factors. Silicon Valley is well aware that its AI data center buildout has a popularity problem on top of the energy supply bottleneck and other construction complications. That may explain the turn to unusual schemes such as offering homeowners the chance to host mini data centers, along with more quixotic proposals such as launching orbital data centers into space and floating AI data centers in the middle of the ocean. 近一半的数据中心项目正面临延期和暂停，行业高管将劳动力短缺和电力限制等问题列为关键因素。硅谷非常清楚，其人工智能数据中心的建设除了面临能源供应瓶颈和其他施工复杂性外，还存在受欢迎程度的问题。这或许可以解释为什么他们转向了一些不同寻常的方案，例如为房主提供托管小型数据中心的机会，以及一些更具幻想色彩的提议，如将轨道数据中心发射到太空，或在海洋中央漂浮人工智能数据中心。