Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
数据中心导致公众电费上涨 230 亿美元
Many major tech companies have pledged to pay their fair share of the costs associated with generating and transmitting more electricity to serve large data centers. But ratepayers across the United States are worried about the potential costs they might have to bear. That’s because it’s not immediately clear how the cost of data centers’ energy will be calculated. The effects of price increases are likely just beginning, and their full effects may not be felt for years.
许多大型科技公司已承诺，将承担为大型数据中心提供电力所需的发电和输电成本中属于其份额的部分。但全美的纳税人却对他们可能需要承担的潜在成本感到担忧。这是因为目前尚不清楚数据中心的能源成本将如何计算。价格上涨的影响可能才刚刚开始，而其全面影响可能需要数年时间才能显现。
For example, a recent report by the organization that monitors the PJM market, an area that encompasses all or part of 14 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, concluded that expected power demand from data centers was a primary reason for $23 billion in customer price increases that will last until at least the end of 2028. I have studied the programs states have launched to address the needs of these large electricity customers. Prices are set by state utility commissions, who determine which customers’ rates will increase by how much to pay for new investments in electricity infrastructure. It’s not simple. Someone has to pay for substations and other electricity transmission equipment – but who, and how much?
例如，负责监管 PJM 市场（覆盖大西洋中部和中西部 14 个州的部分或全部地区）的机构最近发布的一份报告得出结论：数据中心预期的电力需求是导致客户电费上涨 230 亿美元的主要原因，且这一涨价影响将至少持续到 2028 年底。我研究了各州为满足这些大型电力客户需求而推出的项目。电价由州公用事业委员会设定，他们决定哪些客户的费率需要提高多少，以支付电力基础设施的新投资。这并不简单。总得有人为变电站和其他输电设备买单——但由谁买单？买单多少？
The complexity of setting prices
定价的复杂性
Setting a price for electricity is straightforward in principle but complicated in execution. Regulators identify the costs to provide service, allocate the costs to customers and design prices to recover those costs. First, regulators identify the costs that a utility company incurs to provide service. Regulators look at the value of the assets the utility company invests in, such as power plants, transmission lines and substations, as well as its day-to-day operating expenses, such as salaries, fuel, replacement parts and electricity it purchases from other sources.
设定电价在原则上很简单，但在执行中却很复杂。监管机构首先确定提供服务的成本，将其分摊给客户，并设计价格以收回这些成本。首先，监管机构会核定公用事业公司提供服务所产生的成本。监管机构会审查公用事业公司投资的资产价值，例如发电厂、输电线路和变电站，以及其日常运营支出，如工资、燃料、零部件更换费用以及从其他来源购买的电力。
Then these costs are allocated to categories of customers, such as residential, commercial and industrial. Ideally, costs are allocated to the customers who cause them, but that can be complicated to determine. For example, imagine a data center is built in an area that lacks existing power lines and is located 50 yards from a nearby electric substation. It’s clear that the data center should pay to run a 50-yard power line from the substation to the data center. But what if the power company needs to upgrade the substation to handle the increased needs of the data center? Or secure additional sources of electricity? In these cases, the investments are part of the electricity grid that everyone uses. These costs will likely be shared among all customers.
随后，这些成本会被分摊到不同类别的客户中，例如住宅、商业和工业用户。理想情况下，成本应由导致这些成本产生的客户承担，但这在确定时可能很复杂。例如，设想一个数据中心建在一个缺乏现有输电线路的地区，且距离附近的变电站仅 50 码。很明显，数据中心应该支付从变电站到数据中心铺设 50 码输电线路的费用。但如果电力公司需要升级变电站以满足数据中心增加的需求呢？或者需要获取额外的电力来源呢？在这种情况下，这些投资属于每个人都在使用的电网的一部分。这些成本很可能会由所有客户共同分摊。
Cost analysts review each line of a utility company’s costs, often thousands of items, and determine how each cost will be allocated. Each decision incorporates one basic idea: What’s your share? For instance, if a group of customers uses 20% of the electricity delivered by the utility, they would be allocated 20% of the costs associated with energy delivery. Other cost items may be allocated based on the number of customers or how much electricity customers use at particular points in time, but the idea is the same. Finally, the analysts set prices that are designed to recover the costs allocated to each customer group. So, the costs that are allocated to you are directly reflected in the electricity prices that you pay.
成本分析师会审查公用事业公司的每一项成本（通常有数千项），并确定每项成本的分摊方式。每一项决策都包含一个基本理念：你的份额是多少？例如，如果某类客户群使用了公用事业公司输送电力的 20%，那么他们将被分摊 20% 与能源输送相关的成本。其他成本项目可能会根据客户数量或客户在特定时间点的用电量进行分摊，但核心逻辑是一样的。最后，分析师会设定旨在收回分摊给每个客户群成本的价格。因此，分摊给你的成本会直接反映在你支付的电费中。
Flexibility and a potential loophole
灵活性与潜在漏洞
One common criterion for figuring out how much a customer should pay is based on what is called “coincident peak demand” – the amount a customer group uses at the moment when all customers are collectively using the largest amount of electricity. Costs associated with overall peak usage are typically split proportionally – but this opens an opportunity for data centers to exploit the system.
确定客户应支付多少费用的一个常用标准是基于所谓的“重合峰值需求”（coincident peak demand），即所有客户集体用电量达到最大值时，某个客户群的用电量。与整体峰值使用相关的成本通常按比例分摊——但这为数据中心利用系统提供了机会。
Data centers often are able to fine-tune their electricity consumption, using more one minute and less another, in ways that residential users can’t easily replicate. Computerized systems can automatically adjust the amount of work a data center is doing, while a homeowner would either have to race around shutting off appliances to meaningfully reduce the amount of power their home was using or invest in a device that does. Their flexibility means data centers may be able to learn to predict when system loads will peak and consume little to no power in just the right period to avoid contributing to peak loads, as has happened with cryptocurrency-mining operations in Texas. So when regulators look at their usage to determine prices, data centers may be able to avoid paying any costs allocated through coincident peak demand, even if they use large amounts of electricity at other times.
数据中心通常能够微调其电力消耗，在一分钟内多用电，下一分钟少用电，这种方式是住宅用户难以轻易复制的。计算机系统可以自动调整数据中心的工作量，而房主则必须四处奔走关闭电器，才能显著减少家庭用电量，或者投资购买相关设备。这种灵活性意味着数据中心或许能够学会预测系统负荷何时达到峰值，并在恰当的时间段内几乎不消耗电力，从而避免对峰值负荷做出贡献，德克萨斯州的加密货币挖矿业务就曾出现过这种情况。因此，当监管机构查看其用电量以确定价格时，数据中心可能能够避免支付任何通过“重合峰值需求”分摊的成本，即使他们在其他时间使用了大量电力。
Who speaks for you?
谁在为你发声？
When utility regulators decide how costs should be allocated to each customer group, they solicit input from different groups. The utility company initially submits its own proposal for how it thinks costs should be allocated across its system. Large industrial customer groups representing customers such as factories will also submit their own proposals for how to allocate costs and set rates. Retail customer groups representing large and small stores will submit theirs. And large data centers, with the resources to hire experts in cost allocation, will submit theirs as well.
当公用事业监管机构决定如何向每个客户群分摊成本时，他们会征求不同群体的意见。公用事业公司首先会提交自己的提案，说明其认为成本应如何在整个系统中进行分摊。代表工厂等客户的大型工业客户群也会提交他们关于如何分摊成本和设定费率的提案。代表大型和小型商店的零售客户群也会提交他们的提案。而拥有资源聘请成本分摊专家的大型数据中心也会提交他们的方案。
Some states have specific state-government agencies to do some of this work on behalf of particular commercial groups, such as Pennsylvania’s Office of Small Business Advocate. Regulators don’t always get a good sense of residential customers’ voices, though. Every state except Georgia, Idaho and Louisiana has an office of the consumer advocate that represents customer interests in proceedings before the state utility regulator. But they are often charged with representing all customers in the state without bias, meaning they cannot advocate for outcomes that would impose costs on one group of customers.
一些州设有专门的州政府机构，代表特定的商业群体开展部分工作，例如宾夕法尼亚州的小企业倡导办公室。然而，监管机构并不总能很好地听到住宅客户的声音。除佐治亚州、爱达荷州和路易斯安那州外，每个州都设有消费者倡导办公室，在州公用事业监管机构的听证会上代表客户利益。但他们通常被要求不偏不倚地代表州内所有客户，这意味着他们不能倡导那些会将成本转嫁给某一特定客户群的结果。