Data centers’ energy demand threatens Trump’s “Made in America” plan
Data centers’ energy demand threatens Trump’s “Made in America” plan
数据中心能源需求威胁特朗普的“美国制造”计划
US manufacturers in many Rust Belt cities and towns are paying significantly higher electricity costs as growing energy demand from data centers strains the largest power grid operator in the United States. The resulting squeeze on profit margins for steelmakers and brick factories could further undermine President Donald Trump’s “Made in America” plan to revive US manufacturing, and it comes as Trump has simultaneously championed the tech companies behind the AI data center boom.
由于数据中心日益增长的能源需求给美国最大的电网运营商带来了压力，许多“铁锈地带”城镇的美国制造商正面临电费大幅上涨的问题。钢铁制造商和砖厂利润空间的缩减，可能会进一步削弱唐纳德·特朗普总统旨在振兴美国制造业的“美国制造”计划；与此同时，特朗普又在力挺那些推动人工智能数据中心繁荣的科技公司。
Factory electricity bills are generally rising faster than those for other business customers or residential customers, according to a Reuters analysis. It highlighted the example of the Belden Brick Company, a 141-year-old brick manufacturer in Ohio, whose electricity bills have soared from $1,600 to $12,000 per month due to a higher monthly capacity charge in the 13-state region served by the grid operator PJM Interconnection.
据路透社分析，工厂电费的上涨速度普遍快于其他商业客户或住宅客户。分析以俄亥俄州拥有141年历史的砖块制造商Belden Brick Company为例，由于电网运营商PJM Interconnection所覆盖的13个州区域内月度容量费用上涨，该公司的月电费已从1,600美元飙升至12,000美元。
Meanwhile, the Steel Manufacturers Association warned that US steel companies concentrated in the Rust Belt region served by PJM Interconnection are paying tens of millions of dollars in higher power costs per year. Electricity accounts for 20 to 40 percent of the total production costs of making steel. Each electric arc furnace used in steelmaking has an operating power load between 40 and 200 megawatts, and the entire US steel industry draws up to 11 gigawatts of power at peak production across all facilities.
与此同时，钢铁制造商协会警告称，集中在PJM Interconnection覆盖的“铁锈地带”的美国钢铁公司，每年需额外支付数千万美元的电费。电力成本占钢铁生产总成本的20%至40%。炼钢所用的每台电弧炉运行负荷在40至200兆瓦之间，整个美国钢铁行业在生产高峰期总用电量高达11吉瓦。
US steelmakers have benefited from data center construction’s requirements for an estimated 1 million tons of steel per year. But data center energy demand has also driven up operating costs for the US steel industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Ohio-based steelmaker Metallus described its electricity costs as having jumped by 70 percent since 2024, leading the company to pay an extra $15 million in energy costs annually.
据《华尔街日报》报道，美国钢铁制造商受益于数据中心建设每年约100万吨的钢材需求。但数据中心的能源需求也推高了美国钢铁行业的运营成本。总部位于俄亥俄州的钢铁制造商Metallus表示，自2024年以来，其电费上涨了70%，导致公司每年需额外支付1,500万美元的能源费用。
The higher electricity costs for manufacturers coincide with many states in PJM territory having attracted large AI data center projects with substantial electricity needs. That data center growth has driven up PJM’s capacity prices—paid to power generators according to supply and demand forecasts—from $28.92 per megawatt-day in 2024 to $329.17 per megawatt-day in 2026, according to Reuters reporting. PJM has also forecast that electricity demand in its territory will surpass available supply by 6.6 gigawatts starting in 2027, which the Wall Street Journal describes as equivalent to more than six nuclear power plants.
制造商面临的电费上涨，正值PJM区域内的许多州吸引了大量电力需求巨大的AI数据中心项目之际。据路透社报道，数据中心的增长推高了PJM的容量价格（根据供需预测支付给发电方的费用），从2024年的每兆瓦日28.92美元飙升至2026年的每兆瓦日329.17美元。PJM还预测，从2027年开始，其区域内的电力需求将超过可用供应量6.6吉瓦，《华尔街日报》称这相当于六座以上核电站的发电量。
No easy fixes
解决之道难寻
Some US manufacturers have raised the prices paid by customers to partially offset their own rising electricity bills, or are even considering relocation of their businesses, Reuters reported. The Wall Street Journal highlighted warnings from steel industry executives that production outages could become more likely if local power grids are overwhelmed by demand. Such results would likely undercut the competitiveness and viability of US manufacturing, which the Trump administration claims to have prioritized despite the loss of 83,000 manufacturing jobs in Trump’s first year back in office.
据路透社报道，一些美国制造商已通过提高客户价格来部分抵消不断上涨的电费，甚至正在考虑搬迁业务。《华尔街日报》强调了钢铁行业高管的警告：如果当地电网因需求过载而崩溃，生产中断的可能性将会增加。这些结果可能会削弱美国制造业的竞争力和生存能力，尽管特朗普政府声称将制造业放在首位，但特朗普重返办公室的第一年，制造业仍流失了8.3万个工作岗位。
The White House has touted getting Big Tech companies to pay for new power generation and transmission infrastructure by signing a Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which happens to lack any meaningful enforcement mechanism. The Trump administration also joined state governors in pushing PJM to hold a one-time backstop auction for purchasing new power supply capacity. But the United States still faces huge challenges in building enough new power generation and transmission lines to support the energy needs of AI data center demand and US manufacturers, not to mention other businesses and residential customers.
白宫吹捧通过签署《纳税人保护承诺》（Ratepayer Protection Pledge）来促使大型科技公司为新的发电和输电基础设施买单，但该承诺恰恰缺乏任何有效的执行机制。特朗普政府还联合各州州长，推动PJM举行一次性后备拍卖，以购买新的电力供应容量。然而，美国在建设足够的新发电和输电设施以支持AI数据中心和美国制造商的能源需求方面，仍面临巨大挑战，更不用说还要兼顾其他企业和住宅客户的需求。
The Trump administration’s efforts to stop renewable energy projects involving wind and solar power have also not helped. In 2025 alone, the United States saw the cancellation of power projects totaling 266 gigawatts of generation capacity—equivalent to 25 percent of America’s current electricity generation capacity and more than the total electricity generation of Texas, according to Michael Thomas, CEO of the Cleanview data platform that tracks renewable energy and data center projects. Clean energy projects accounted for 93 percent of those project cancellations.
特朗普政府阻止风能和太阳能等可再生能源项目的努力也无济于事。据追踪可再生能源和数据中心项目的Cleanview数据平台首席执行官迈克尔·托马斯（Michael Thomas）称，仅在2025年，美国就取消了总计266吉瓦发电能力的电力项目，这相当于美国当前发电能力的25%，超过了德克萨斯州的总发电量。其中，清洁能源项目占了这些取消项目总数的93%。
The Trump administration’s cancellations of various wind power projects certainly represented one contributing factor. But other significant patterns included local opposition to renewable energy projects in states such as Ohio and Indiana that were also courting new data center development, along with a lack of new transmission lines leading to high interconnection costs for new clean energy projects, Thomas said. If US states and the federal government are hoping to support local manufacturing, they may need to start making different choices in addressing the rising energy costs of the data center boom.
托马斯表示，特朗普政府取消各类风电项目无疑是一个促成因素。但其他显著模式还包括俄亥俄州和印第安纳州等州对可再生能源项目的当地抵制，这些州同时也在招揽新的数据中心开发项目；此外，缺乏新的输电线路也导致了新清洁能源项目的并网成本高昂。如果美国各州和联邦政府希望支持本土制造业，他们可能需要开始做出不同的选择，以应对数据中心繁荣带来的能源成本上升问题。