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Some consumers are seeing higher electric bills thanks to the increase of developed data centers, which have high demand for electricity and force regional infrastructure upgrades, The Washington Post reports.
In a race to compete in artificial intelligence, tech giants such as Google and Amazon have ramped up development of data centers. Data centers have a high demand for power, which can both drive up the local utility costs and require improvements to an area’s electric grid transmission systems.
As a result, costs have already begun going up for customers—or are about to in the near future, according to utility planning documents and energy industry analysts. Some regulators are concerned that the tech companies aren’t paying their fair share, while leaving customers from homeowners to small businesses on the hook.
