A Virginia county that has 37 operating data centers and plans to build at least 17 more has reportedly asked teachers and other county employees to switch off lights to help mitigate an estimated 25 percent increase in electricity costs.

According to Newsweek, the Henrico County government said its power costs for government and school facilities would rise by nearly 25 percent starting July 1.

It would add an extra $5 million in the next fiscal year.

Newsweek explained further:

County Manager John Vithoulkas told employees in a June 26 email that the rate paid for electricity “will increase dramatically” and that the county anticipates additional increases “in the years ahead,” according to 404 Media and the Henrico Citizen.

Henrico has become a data center hub in recent years. 404 Media reported that the county has 37 data centers and plans for 17 more, while the Henrico Citizen reported that Henrico’s eastern corridor is now home to at least 16 facilities, with more on the way. County officials have attributed at least part of the rate increase to rising fuel costs, but have not connected it to data centers, according to the Henrico Citizen.

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“To mitigate the impact of higher electric costs, I am asking that we, collectively, make slight adjustments to conserve electricity across our individual workspaces,” Vithoulkas wrote, according to copies of the email seen by the outlets. The email asked workers to turn off lights when leaving workspaces, shut down computers and laptops at the end of the day, adjust blinds to manage heat from sunlight, unplug unused appliances and chargers, and limit or avoid using space heaters.

Vithoulkas wrote that a typical space heater can cost the county between $150 and $300 per year in electricity costs, and that “each dollar we can save by conserving electricity is another dollar the county can reinvest into staff and the services we provide our residents.”

Virginia has become an artificial intelligence hub in the United States, hosting the most operational data centers in the country.

The state has nearly 400 operational facilities.

Northern Virginia is sometimes called the “Data Center Capital of the World.”

However, some Virginia residents have their criticisms about data centers.

“Data centers are needed, I won’t deny that. Again, I use them every day, as do you. I also use the bathroom every day, but I don’t want a waste treatment plant in my backyard,” one resident said, according to WJLA.

WJLA has more:

Perhaps the biggest concern for local residents: the impact of increasing electrical demand. That’s already the case for Americans in 13 states from New Jersey to Kentucky. As more data centers plug in, there are worries that the system just won’t be able to meet demand, and potentially raise prices for millions of customers.

“Taxpayers have sometimes said, ‘Well, the infrastructure just to get to a data center, we feel like the data center should be paying more. It shouldn’t all come out of our taxes to get this place in a place where you can do business,'” Thuman said.

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“It’s a fair question,” Lim said. “When we build campuses, we’ll often put substations on. We’re bearing the cost of that. Again, that concept of us showing up and plugging in. And so we are making significant investments in that. It does get challenging because there are certain parts of the infrastructure that we don’t control, particularly transmission lines themselves, where we try to partner with the power companies in every region we’re in.”

What the data center industry has on its side is an enormous amount of money as companies rush to invest in AI, where the U.S. currently leads, but China is racing to overtake.

“Research is exponentially growing the amount of information that’s out there, which is creating a healthy level of demand. But I think what we’ve seen in the last few years is AI. And a few years ago, this thing called ChatGPT came out, which opened everyone’s eyes to what was really happening for many years before that,” Bertí said.

In addition to insatiable demand, the data center industry also has political support in Washington, where President Donald Trump has signed an order to streamline and speed up permitting for large-scale data centers. The administration argues the U.S. needs to stay ahead of China for economic and national security reasons.

All of which is unlikely to stop public concern and demand for more studies into the health effects of data centers.

 

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