Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Power

Some Datacenters Divert Power from Homes. Will It Drive Homeowners to Solar and Batteries? (electrek.co) 146

Posted by EditorDavid from the alternative-energies dept.
An anonymous reader shared this report from Electrek: A Nevada utility just told 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents that it's redirecting 75% of their electricity supply to data centers, and they have less than a year to find a new power source. It's one of the starkest examples yet of the AI boom's impact on everyday Americans... NV Energy needs the capacity for data centers being built by Google, Apple, and Microsoft around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno, according to Fortune... Data centers drove half of all US electricity demand growth last year....

That dynamic — small residential customers losing out to massive industrial electricity buyers — is exactly what's driving the broader shift to distributed solar and storage. When the grid becomes unreliable or unaffordable because of data center demand, the homeowners who have solar panels and a battery in the garage are the ones with options.
"The shift is measurable," they argue: Third-party ownership models (leases and power purchase agreements), which still qualify for the [U.S.] commercial investment tax credit through 2027, are projected to grow 25% in 2026 and capture up to 69% of residential installations, up from roughly 45% in 2025. Homeowners aren't waiting for incentives to come back — they're finding new ways to get solar on their roofs... [A] battery that can store cheap solar energy and deploy it during peak hours is increasingly essential. California utility customers alone are adding roughly 8,000 new home batteries per month — about 100 MW of new storage capacity. Municipal programs are accelerating the trend. Ann Arbor, Michigan, recently became the first US city to directly deploy solar and battery systems on 150 homes through its city-owned utility. Vermont's Green Mountain Power is offering home batteries at little to no upfront cost. These programs signal that utilities themselves recognize the value of distributed energy.

Some Datacenters Divert Power from Homes. Will It Drive Homeowners to Solar and Batteries? More | Reply

Some Datacenters Divert Power from Homes. Will It Drive Homeowners to Solar and Batteries?

Comments Filter:

  • Are you serious? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kenh ( 9056 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @09:46PM (#66146821) Homepage Journal

    That dynamic â" small residential customers losing out to massive industrial electricity buyers â" is exactly what's driving the broader shift to distributed solar and storage.

    What?

    You are acting like this is a common occurrence happening all across the country - it isn't. This article is the first such case , and since it takes effect in one year, it isn't "...driving the broader shift to distributed solar and storage". Tax incentives, rising utility prices, and concerns about the environment are what has been driving folks to invest in alternative energy sources like residential solar panels.

    • Re:Are you serious? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by luther349 ( 645380 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:17PM (#66146859)
      90% of these data centers will not even be built. the ai stuff is just a investor bubble that gonna pop
      • Maybe. However, quite possibly not. AGI isn't happening through LLMs and there's no reason to believe AGI will happen anytime soon, and some of these companies are betting that it will. However, what will happen is that a lot of knowledge workers will become more efficient and less valuable, and they will have to compete with an exec with a prompt.

        • However, what will happen is that a lot of knowledge workers will become more efficient and less valuable,

          That's not clear. It's what Eric Schmidt is hoping, but it hasn't been accomplished yet.

          • It has already happened. A bunch of companies stopped hiring junior devs. A bunch of shoddy work got done by AI and was dumped on customers, but since it cost so much less for the company producing the junk, it paid off. I play with local llms often. 128gb machine. I'm going to have to train a model to get anything worthwhile done, and even then, it's a big if on the worthwhile.
    • It's not a common occurrence. Yet.

    • Correct.

      The current war and upcoming $1000/mo typical residential utility bills is what's driving me. And the math on a Carrington Event.

      I know of three other people who are off-grid capable in my network of high hundreds of households.

      • The current war and upcoming $1000/mo typical residential utility bills is what's driving me. And the math on a Carrington Event.

        I know of three other people who are off-grid capable in my network of high hundreds of households.

        Remember to buy only AGMs so EMPs won't fry the BMS.

        • Yeah somethings weird with this story. Utilities are highly regulated by a lot of laws with teeth. I might be wrong, but suddenly cutting off the electricity of an entire community thats paying its bills probably isnt allowed unless there are alternatives. It could be that there are two other electricity providers the community can jump to over the same grid.

          • The power company is in Nevada. The community is in California. Where they are located, getting power from California sources would require a billion dollar transmission line. So, they buy it wholesale from the Nevada power grid.

            The Nevada PUC doesn't concern themselves with California residents.

    • What?

      You are acting like this is a common occurrence happening all across the country - it isn't. This article is the first such case

      It's /., you don't have to have facts, just a pithy assertion about "companies bad, public spending good."

      That said, I'm surprised NV Energy isn't bound by a contract or regulation to supply residential power. One year to find an alternate supply isn't a very long time if you're not positioned to install an alternate at your home. I'm quite sure many of the customers built or bought their homes assuming they had some guarantee that power would be delivered over the grid. It's an interesting legal question t

    • This article is the first such case

      No it's simply the first case of a company declaring customers will lose power as a result. The reality is massive companies have for a while used Power Purchasing Agreements to siphon off power that was designed and directed to residential customers. While in the past this hasn't resulted in someone explicitly saying "we'll no longer serve you" it has indirectly put cost pressures on customers which have made solar and storage more viable thanks to higher energy prices.

  • Amazing. So residential electricity consumers in the USA are finding out what it's like to live in a third-world country without proper electricity infrastructure. Thanks, AI bros!

    • Arguably worse. It's certainly not like a lot of the third world is as it is because of virtuous and competent leadership; but going from lousy to lousy is frankly mid-tier when it comes to incompetence and corruption. Starting with all the advantages of a functional society and leaving it a husk is a whole other level. Same deal in public health. Any idiot; and most competent and hardworking people, can do a bad job with what they don't have; but can they destroy a world class research base or reintroduce

    • I think it's more "thanks, free market!" than "thanks, AI bros!". In a free market there is nothing to prevent this kind of phenomenon to emerge. Unless you assume that everyone acts for the good of the community. But one premise of free market proponents is that people act selfishly.

      This story is essentially a demonstration of the negative effect of a marker that is too free. This could be solved with market regulation. Something like "require data centers to produce their own energy" or "tax energy sale t

      • Another way to do this would be deregulation of power generation. Building a new power plant is probably more expensive because of new regulations, where an existing power plant may not have to meet them.

        Similar with houses where I live. If you have a house that was built a while ago, it does not need to meet new requirements, but if you want to build a new house, it has to have very good thermal insulation, solar panels on the roof and so on, this makes building a new house more expensive. It may be cheape

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      It takes two to tango, and the alleged administration in Washington has been bought off; they and the AI bros are tangoing all the way to the bank. It would be nice not to live in a shithole country, but alas, such is the fate of Americans these days.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      Some 20 years ago it was already not the best.

  • Greed and infrastructure do not mix (Score:5, Informative)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:15PM (#66146855)

    Seriously, in developed nations doing something like this is illegal. This is a 3rd world move.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      I'm very surprised it's legal here. I thought the electric companies were legally required to serve their customers reliably, and not solely when they found it desirable to do so -- that's the agreement they made in exchange for being a natural monopoly (natural because you can't economically run more than one set of electric lines to every household). Apparently I was wrong about that?

      • Re:Greed and infrastructure do not mix (Score:5, Informative)

        by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Sunday May 17, 2026 @02:15AM (#66147073) Journal

        The energy company deciding to end service is not the utility directly serving customers:

        "NV Energy, the Nevada utility that has supplied the bulk of Lake Tahoeâ(TM)s electricity for decades, told Liberty Utilities â" the small California company that services the region â" that it will stop providing power after May 2027. The reason: NV Energy needs the capacity for data centers being built by Google, Apple, and Microsoft around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno, according to Fortune."

        Liberty Utilities is the electric company. NV Energy is their main supplier. NV Energy found a customer willing to pay more, and is giving Liberty Utilities notice to figure out a different method to make up the shortfall. Is Liberty negligent? Not at all:

        https://california.libertyutil... [libertyutilities.com]

        https://california.libertyutil... [libertyutilities.com]

        "Liberty is preparing for a planned transition in our supplemental energy supply beginning in 2028, while continuing to provide safe, reliable electric service to our customers. Liberty began this process in 2019 when Liberty filed for the transmission capacity reservations to enable this transition to the market. Liberty cannot access the greater energy market without these transmission rights, and weâ(TM)re excited to receive those rights when NV Energyâ(TM)s Greenlink-West project goes into service, expected December 31, 2027.
        Today, we serve customers through a combination of Liberty-owned solar generation and supplemental wholesale power purchased from NV Energy. Our 60 megawatts of locally owned solar generation will continue to play an important role in our long-term energy mix.
        Beginning in 2028, NV Energy will no longer serve as our wholesale energy supplier. To prepare for this transition, we are pursuing a competitive process to secure new supplemental energy supply arrangements focused on sustainability, affordability, and reliability. NV Energy will remain our transmission provider and neighbor, and we will continue using the existing transmission system to deliver electricity to our service territory."

        The problem is that apparently NV Energy is moving up the deadline from beginning 2028 to May of 2027... effectively giving 1 year notice to Liberty Utilities basically from now.

        https://fortune.com/2026/05/12... [fortune.com]

        "Data centers used 22% of Nevadaâ(TM)s electricity in 2024, and that share could rise to 35% by 2030. In NV Energyâ(TM)s own 2024 resource plan, about 75% of major-project load growth is attributed to data centers, according to Sierra Club expert testimony filed with Nevada regulators and reviewed by Fortune, and most of it is concentrated in Northern Nevadaâ"using the same system that feeds power to Lake Tahoe.

        NV Energy is building Greenlink West, a 525-kV, $4.2 billion transmission line from Las Vegas to Yerington, expected online in May 2027. Schwarzrock said Liberty would be âoefirst in the waiting lineâ when Greenlink opens, giving it access to a wider pool of energy providers. But that timeline matches the contract deadline exactly, leaving almost no margin for error. About 70% of the projectâ(TM)s costs will be borne by Southern Nevada customers. "

        So basically Liberty was expecting until December 2027 to make the transition, understandably allowing for delays and other transition activities. NV Energy is basically saying - there will be no delays, be prepared for the cutover to happen in May.

        I'm not going to call the parent article complete flamebait, because it does highlight the very specific problem that the Tahoe grid has (it doesn't connect to California, but it is regulated by California regulators.) However, it is a far cry from saying that datacenters are going

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by haruchai ( 17472 )

      Seriously, in developed nations doing something like this is illegal. This is a 3rd world move.

      Which country do you live in? I suspect it's not the USA

      • Why would you suspect that? Do you believe that living somewhere doesn't give you a right to criticise the place?

    • The fact this is happening means anyone affected should be able to disconnect from the grid for $0, and never be threatened with fees. As a point in fact, we should get it codified into law and make it apply to everyone.

      I expect we would see energy execs change their mind when the majority of the customers they expect to finance upgrades suddenly start disconnecting en masse. I expect private equity that just bought a bunch of power will start sh*tting their pants as their previously captive customers no

  • Universal Service Taxes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by will4 ( 7250692 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:28PM (#66146867)

    Presumably the residential customers in the Lake Tahoe have paid a Universal Service electricity fee or tax for decades.

    And, there are particular laws in place for electricity companies to not cut off electricity to persons handicapped or elderly as long as they sign up for that status with the utility company.

  • This is how revolutions start (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:43PM (#66146877)

    Just imagine some power company executive saying "let them eat dirt" and you'll know where I'm going with this.

    This is what happens when the rights of average citizens are slowly eroded to the point where those in power lose sight of just how dangerous the disenfranchised can be. Propaganda and gaslighting only go so far. At some point the great unwashed get desperate and/or angry enough to band together and attempt to overthrow their oppressors.

    The tech bros think they're OK this time around because they control the ubiquitous surveillance apparatus, and because elite propaganda efforts over the last many decades have been so successful. And they may be right - an 'Elysium'-type hellscape may be just around the corner.

    But personally, I'm rooting for Madame la Guillotine and her army of torches and pitchforks. The heads of Zuck, Leon, and Bozos on pikes would fill my heart with hope for human civilization. And I say that without a trace of irony.

    • The people who incessantly repeat "there is no place for political violence in America" seem to forget that the country's fight for independence began with acts of political violence.

      • It's the means to an end of last resort. As Gandhi showed, one could confront and defeat an empire without violence. Furthermore, slave revolts fail 99% of the time because the bourgeois don't support violent change. And political legitimacy and a plan to govern after the overthrow are needed, and mindless violence generally isn't compatible with that. Nonviolence doesn't mean pacifist, convenient, or nondestructive.

        • Re: This is how revolutions start (Score:5, Interesting)

          by getuid() ( 1305889 ) on Sunday May 17, 2026 @01:54AM (#66147061)

          As Gandhi showed, one could confront and defeat an empire without violence

          First, tou'd have to be Gandhi to achieve what Gandhi did. If you, yoursellf, did today everything that Gandhi did back in the early 1900s, all youd'd achieve would be starving in prison.

          Second, it wasn't strictly non-violence that brought Gandhi success. The Brits didn't let India go because they thought "gee, what a noble character, this guy deserves success". They did becsuse they feared - rightfully so - massive upheaval, violence, and civil war.

          What Gandhi did wasn't just to ask nicely; it was to mount a massive, credible threat of great violence. Kudos to him for knowing how to, and being in the position to, do that without personally throwing a single stone himself.

          But the key ingredient of Ganfhi-esque success isn't not throwing stones, it's successfully projecting the threat of violent revolution.

      • "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
        A very specific demographic situation is required for a revolution - lots of young men who have little to lose. The median age in the USA nowadays is close to 40.

        • A very specific demographic situation is required for a revolution - lots of young men who have little to lose. The median age in the USA nowadays is close to 40.

          Damn you for being right. But thanks for pointing out a glaring blind spot in my thinking. To my embarrassment, I had never connected an ageing population with the (lack of) probability that revolution will even be attempted, never mind being successful.

          • It also means a lot of the older generation who established this will be clearing out. There is, of course, a new generation of nepo babies being lined up to take over. But they aren't the ones who architected and fought to establish this system. They are weak and incompetent.

          • No need to be embarassed, it is not common knowledge. I only know that because I have been watching some political science courses - as with all other knowledge, it is better late than never.

      • The people who incessantly repeat "there is no place for political violence in America" seem to forget that the country's fight for independence began with acts of political violence.

        Even there diplomacy preceded revolution.

    • Re:This is how revolutions start (Score:5, Insightful)

      by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Sunday May 17, 2026 @12:03AM (#66146967) Journal

      This is what happens when the rights of average citizens are slowly eroded to the point where those in power lose sight of just how dangerous the disenfranchised can be. Propaganda and gaslighting only go so far. At some point the great unwashed get desperate and/or angry enough to band together and attempt to overthrow their oppressors.

      Either that or, you know, Liberty Utilities (the residential power company who currently buys power from NV Energy and sells it to the homeowners) will contract with another supplier. Probably the price will be higher, which will be painful in the near term. In the longer term it will motivate regional suppliers (probably including NV Energy) to expand their production, and the higher prices will fund that expansion.

      I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but it's not really a "pitchforks and guillotines" problem, it's an Econ 101 supply and demand problem.

      • I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but it's not really a "pitchforks and guillotines" problem, it's an Econ 101 supply and demand problem.

        In this specific case, yes. But TFA describes just one instance a society-wide problem in which both politics and the economy are predicated on turning the general population into victims and servants. That can't be solved by Econ 101 platitudes.

        • I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but it's not really a "pitchforks and guillotines" problem, it's an Econ 101 supply and demand problem.

          In this specific case, yes. But TFA describes just one instance a society-wide problem in which both politics and the economy are predicated on turning the general population into victims and servants. That can't be solved by Econ 101 platitudes.

          Really? Got any examples that actually hold up to scrutiny?

    • jury nullification

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by haruchai ( 17472 )

      If Larry Ellison isn't on your list, you've not been paying attention

      • Oh, rest assured that One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison is on my mind a lot lately. He just wasn't top-of-mind when I typed my comment.

        But thanks for bringing this real-world Voldemort into the discussion - he's definitely one vicious bastard who deserves continuous investigation by what's left of real journalism.

  • Great! We will be diverting 75% of your companies money and 75% of all your people's salaries to pay for the Nevada residents you are removing their power from to pay for them switching to an alternative power source. Have a nice day!

  • It might drive molotov cocktail production. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @11:45PM (#66146943)

    Do they want people to burn down datacenters? Because this is how you get people to burn down datacenters.

  • When it's locals objecting to 9 GW of consumption on a DC 2x the size of Manhattan when all of Utah only uses 4 GW. They really ought to kick out this lying billionaire carpetbagger.

  • The smart ones, yes (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Sunday May 17, 2026 @12:08AM (#66146973) Homepage

    The smart homeowners will add solar/battery to their properties. I'd bet, though, that we'll see a sudden surge of voters pressuring their legislatures to force power companies to give residential service priority over data centers.

    • I'd bet, though, that we'll see a sudden surge of voters pressuring their legislatures to force power companies to give residential service priority over data centers.

      That is the key. Vote out politicians such as PSC members or who appointed them and you’ll get the attention of the rest.

  • The state government typically regulated utilities, giving them rights such as right of way (the rights of a utility to just dig through your property without your permission), or a monopoly (freedom from competition). In exchange for those rights, the utilities are regulated, are to provide service to all residents at fair prices, etc. Is Nevada power delivery not regulated at all, or is the just not enforcing those regulation? If the latter, fire/recall the current government. If the former, heck, each an

    • This is not how things work under kleptocracies. The US was never particularly strong on communal resources anyway, now it's just not even pretending.

  • In my state (Washington) there is a law on the books allowing voters to form public utility districts. Which are run by officials elected by those same people. And empowered to take over utility services from private entities.

    With such a law, it would seem that Nevadans could easily direct resources as they see fit. Here, the mere existance of such authority serves to keep the remaining few private companies in line.

  • It should drive them to visit the data centers with some wire cutters and explosives

  • The utility company should lose all protections and subsidies of being a public utility.

    Corporations are pushing hard, residents will eventually break, and as another commented not far above said - a small revolution will occur that is not going to go well for those data centers.
  • ...and someone from Meta, Alphabet or whoever else will knock your door to get your own energy. You need better laws to protect people, not alternative energy sources.
  • Uhm, if this story is as extreme as presented here, I would team up to make that as impossible as it could be. Circuit breakers would accidentally trip a lot if they push through. Pigeons hitting the wires these days...

Slashdot Top Deals

Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money. -- Arthur Miller

Close