Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
I question why any Canadian province would want data centres after reading stuff like this:
...Reasons for surging power bills depend on where you live. New England states are contending with higher natural gas prices and too few gas pipelines to supply the region, especially on the coldest days. California’s residential electricity rates are close to double those in the rest of the US in large part because of the state’s ambitious climate policies and costs tied to preventing wildfires.
In Pennsylvania, power plant retirements are squeezing supply as data centers are stoking demand. The state’s electricity comes from the PJM Interconnection power grid, the nation’s largest, stretching over 13 states from the Midwest to the East Coast. Residential electricity rates on this grid have risen rapidly since 2020, with the three states that gave PJM its name—Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland—seeing increases of about 40% in that time, according to BloombergNEF In parts of eastern Pennsylvania, home to the Lehigh Valley, the price of electricity has soared 200% since 2020, pushing up the average bill by about $23 per month this year alone.
Because infrastructure costs and higher wholesale electricity prices are spread across the grid, even people who live far from data center hot spots are bearing the cost. On the PJM grid, data centers will add at least $23 billion to customer bills over the three years ending in May 2028, according to Monitoring Analytics, the grid’s independent market monitor.
...(bold mine)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-power-bills-midterm-election-issue/
|
Investing heavily in data centres is a no brainer for Canada.
1. Canada is NOT the United States. Canadian electricity production is heavily skewed towards renewables (hydro, nuclear) with huge largely untapped wind and solar potential. Canadian electricity is much cheaper and can remain much cheaper if it is properly expanded and managed.
2. Data centres have become a national security issue. It's strategically foolish to offshore control over information to other countries; especially hostile ones like the USA that weaponize it against us.
3. Data centres give off a lot of heat and need huge power supplies to keep them cool. This is another competitive advantage for Canada as they aren't nearly as power hungry for a good part of the year due to our climate. We'd be wise to exploit this advantage rather than assuming what makes sense in the USA makes sense for Canada.
4. Canada is an electricity exporter, so we actually subsidize the USA with power at rates below what they can produce it. We should, over the long term, curtail exports to the USA and re-route power domestically to ensure continued cheaper power to Canadians and Canadian industry. It's a competitive advantage that we've been squandering the last 30 years. It's short sighted to sell them cheap power that US industry then uses to compete with our own industries. Dumb dumb dumb!
Threaded Mode