County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools To 'Conserve Electricity' (404media.co) 204
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity. "Beginning July 1st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically -- by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead," a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).
Henrico County is a community of more than 350,000 people in eastern Virginia just outside of Richmond. It also hosts 37 data centers and there are plans to build 17 more, including plans to convert hundreds of acres of Civil War battlefields into data centers. Thanks to its proximity to DC and vast amounts of land, Henrico County became a data center hub seemingly overnight and its services clients big and small. Meta built a data center there in 2017.
"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 in the email. "Turn off your lights when leaving your workspace, including when you leave for the day. Turn off your computers/laptops at the end of each workday. If your workspace has windows, adjust the blinds to manage heat from sunlight. Unplug any appliances, chargers, or other electrical items when they are not in use. Please limit use of (or refrain altogether from using) space heaters. A typical space heater alone can cost the county from $150 to $300 per year in electricity costs." "Each dollar we can save by conserving electricity is another dollar the county can reinvest into staff and the services we provide our residents," Vithoulkas email said.
Henrico County is a community of more than 350,000 people in eastern Virginia just outside of Richmond. It also hosts 37 data centers and there are plans to build 17 more, including plans to convert hundreds of acres of Civil War battlefields into data centers. Thanks to its proximity to DC and vast amounts of land, Henrico County became a data center hub seemingly overnight and its services clients big and small. Meta built a data center there in 2017.
"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 in the email. "Turn off your lights when leaving your workspace, including when you leave for the day. Turn off your computers/laptops at the end of each workday. If your workspace has windows, adjust the blinds to manage heat from sunlight. Unplug any appliances, chargers, or other electrical items when they are not in use. Please limit use of (or refrain altogether from using) space heaters. A typical space heater alone can cost the county from $150 to $300 per year in electricity costs." "Each dollar we can save by conserving electricity is another dollar the county can reinvest into staff and the services we provide our residents," Vithoulkas email said.
Color me surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Color me surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep. Fortunately, the rest of the world has now understood that (which is one of the major accomplishments of Trump, so he has some good effects after all, even if they are not what he intended), and is preparing top do without. The transition will take some time, so it would be nice if the US does not do a total collapse, but a slow slide into the 2nd world. But even if that collapse happens, the rest of the world will be ok.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Not a problem. Heavy equipment has a tendency to run for a long, long time. Sure, there will be problems, but they will be possible to manage. And do you really think there is a choice? The US is actively self-destroying these days. Do you really think the rest of the world can do anything about that?
Re: Color me surprised... (Score:2)
You failed to read between the lines there.
You think it's not an problem if a hostile superpower with massive manufacturing capacity is going to go through some hard times?
You remind me of Macron being all happy to make Trump sign a treaty at Versailles. How did that go the last time?
Re: (Score:2)
You failed to read between the lines there.
Nope. And where did I say "not a problem"? Please provide a citation.
Re: Color me surprised... (Score:2)
Citation? It's literally the first three words in your comment that person was responding to. Is this some kind of weird gaslighting experiment you're trying? It's not working.
Re: (Score:2)
Context matters. Read more than just the three words _and_ realize that the first three words were a relative statement to the previous comments.
Seriously, this is not kindergarten.
Kleptocracy (Score:5, Informative)
Kleptocracy (from Greek words meaning "rule by thieves") is a form of government where corrupt leaders use their power to systematically steal their nation's wealth and natural resources. Instead of serving the public, kleptocrats exploit state institutions to enrich themselves and fund political loyalists.
Key characteristics of a kleptocracy include:
State Capture: Ruling elites place family members, political allies, or opaque businesses in charge of state-owned companies, public contracts, and the judiciary to ensure total control.
Patronage Networks: The vast wealth looted from the public is used to bribe, reward, and maintain the loyalty of the inner circle who keep the leader in power.
Transnational Money Laundering: Kleptocrats rarely keep all their ill-gotten gains at home. They often move stolen funds into foreign democracies with strong rule-of-law to obscure their wealth, using networks of lawyers, accountants, and shell companies.
Social and Economic Devastation: Because state funds are diverted into private pockets, public services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure are routinely decimated.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure why you were modded down, even if AC. There is corruption in every government, the question is how far has it gone and is it reversible? There are jurisdictional treaties, and if the other states do have strong rules, corruption that may be legal here may be illegal there, and the proceeds sufficiently taintied for recovery.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
We need communism NOW.
That would make the current government look good in comparison.
Re:Color me surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)
So long as having the things that everybody needs requires that a whole lot of people work hard, we can't have communism. It will just create widespread poverty like it has every other time it was tried, because it contradicts basic human psychology too strongly.
AFTER we have the level of labor automation that everyone is afraid of, where basically everything is done by robots and there are only enough jobs (of any kind) for only a tiny fraction of the population, something like communism might be sustainable. And even that is a maybe (we have zero examples of this from which to draw a conclusion, so all we can do is speculate).
Re:Color me surprised... (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't require nearly as many people working nearly as hard as we have now to provide for everyone.
Re:Color me surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
But still far too much.
Buildings still need to be built, and its hard work. So is building and maintaining sewer lines, power lines, cell phone networks etc.
Food is still grown by human farmers. A few farmers can make a whole lot of food, but those farmers have to work hard to do it. The same goes for everything else farmed or derived from livestock.
The factories that produce all our consumer trinkets still need a lot of human operators.
The list goes on and on.
Even if we did cease all overproduction and re-organize labor to make only what we need (presumably with extra saved up for emergencies), there would be far too much human labor required for it to be accomplished without paying the laborers in proportion to their effort and the rarity of their skill set. Asking them to put up with that "for the greater good" will result in the exact same consequences we consistently see when we try this (which is to say, failure, starvation, and violence).
Re: (Score:2)
> I used to think that. Then I looked at the math. The amount of money possessed by the billionares and a trillionare pale in the face of the size (and needs) of the actual economy
The Derivatives Market recently surpassed 1 Quadrillion Dollars.
Notice how none of the politicians are talking about taxing that? It's all a show to stoke up conflict between the lower classes.
On the other hand, the same people do want to put AI in charge of totalizing Central Planning, because "this time Communism will work",
Re: (Score:2)
The Derivatives Market recently surpassed 1 Quadrillion Dollars.
Sorry, that's a bit deceptive. The notional value of all derivatives contracts in the market (i.e., the total value of the underlying assets represented by the contracts) is 1 quadrillion dollars, possibly more. However, the gross market value of the contracts themselves is much less, about 20 or 30 trillion.
Think of it this way: the amount of money that would need to change hands to close all of those contracts is the latter number, about 20 to 30 trillion.
Re: Color me surprised... (Score:2)
Adopt Chinese style communism
Let market thinking work, but set quotas for employment, work hours, production levels and punish those who fail to perform severely
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Chinese style communism" is just capitalism with the intention of converting over to communism later, in direct accordance with the theories of Marx. He predicted that poor countries could not jump in as communist countries, because they just redistribute poverty (which is exactly how it played out each time it was tried). He stated that a country must embrace capitalism first, in order to generate great wealth, and then once the forces of production were great enough the workers would all realize they d
Re: (Score:2)
"before that it was pure communism and was responsible for mass starvation with death tolls in the tens of millions"
that was because they followed the pseudoscience of Lysenkoism that was also devastating to the Soviets.
Trofim Lysenko should have been turfed as soon as Stalin was gone but Khrushchev also supported him which puzzled me.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure. The reason for stupid ideas, like Lysenko, taking over is lack of competition, which is inherent to communism, In a capitalist system people are searching for ways to make money for themselves, so there are enough competing ideas being tried out with private money. If the money runs out before profits are made, the ideas stop. When government can keep subsidizing bad ideas they don't stop, they just keep getting bigger and more stupid.
Re: (Score:3)
The reason for stupid ideas, like Lysenko, taking over is lack of competition, which is inherent to communism,
And yet, stupid ideas like climate change denialism, antivax and so on are doing extremely well in capitalist country like America.
Re: (Score:3)
Incidentally, the only recorded event (that I know of) of a wealthy country attempting to convert to communism was Czechoslovakia, and it didn't produce the expected utopia. It just lead them straight into poverty.
I'm no history expert, but it's hard to draw conclusions from that. The country was shattered by war. The whole of Europe surrounding Czechoslovakia was shattered by war. Then the Soviets took over and tried to control things from Moscow. So we can't really just blame "communism" for the poverty.
Having just done some travel in the region, I'm a big fan of places that used to be communist. They tend to have good public housing, good public transport and good public infrastructure in general. Parks, kids' playgrounds, stuff like that. If only there was a way to get the nice public infrastructure and skip the authoritarian oppression. The Nordic countries seem to be doing a pretty good job.
Re: (Score:2)
but we don't have another capitalist country to buy our stuff if we do that.
Re: (Score:3)
Adopt Chinese style communism
Let market thinking work, but set quotas for employment, work hours, production levels and punish those who fail to perform severely
Or adopt American-style democracy. Have the citizens contemplate why their electricity rates are increasing 25% when most of the benefits are supporting the data centers, and then have those voters vote in the leaders they want. Why are the current leaders helping the data centers? Have they receive individual gifts, or have the companies provided tangible concessions to the county and its people?
Re: (Score:3)
You know there are varying degrees between these two systems?
Not a bright idea (Score:3)
When they get blackouts and/or rolling brownouts, in this weather, there's a lot of people with firearms down there...
Re:Not a bright idea (Score:5, Insightful)
The majority of those gun nuts are absolute cowards. All they do is pray daily that someone tries to break in so they can finally shoot them. In reality the murder rate is at a record low https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30... [npr.org] and has been declining since the early 1990s.
If the gun nuts and "don't tread on me" crowd actually cared they would be out protesting against the armed secret police who kidnap people into unmarked vehicles. Isn't that what they've been warning about for years, an overreaching federal government?
It turns out they they can't swallow those boots any harder. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic... [gstatic.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The majority of gun owners are actually responsible people who follow the laws with the firearms they own.
( Compare the number of gun owners / firearms in this Country with gun " crime " and look at the overall percentage )
To those who do not own any firearms or who swing hard left politically, anyone else with a gun or even an
interest in shooting them ( hunting / target / etc ) at all is labeled as a " gun nut ".
" If the gun nuts and "don't tread on me" crowd actually cared they would be out protesting aga
Re: Not a bright idea (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
The majority of gun owners are actually responsible people who follow the laws with the firearms they own.
( Compare the number of gun owners / firearms in this Country with gun " crime " and look at the overall percentage )
There are what, 300 million privately-owned guns in America? Very few are actually involved in "Gun Crimes"
Re: (Score:2)
It's trivial to convert a peaceful protest into a violent mob by inserting undercover assets
Well clearly you're wrong. Plenty of protests against ICE murdering and kidnapping US citizens, but little by the way of mob violence against them. They've tried doubling down on cities with protests being ever nastier and more oppressive and still no ob violence. And still "muh freedoms" gun nuts cowering at home while armed masked agents kidnap people.
The world demonstrably doesn't work how you think. Guns don't pr
Re: (Score:2)
One of the reasons for the decline is because everyone has a cellphone. And everyone is recording everything.
Now you could have dozens of witnesses with dozens of camera angles.
Re: (Score:2)
If only we could get the gun nuts to start using electrical guns...
Re: (Score:2)
Any links you can share?
Re: (Score:2)
IIRC, there's a decent link between registered gun ownership and the suicide rate. However, a lot of gun ownership is unregistered, so that's probably not reliable.
Re: (Score:2)
The nuance is completed "successful" suicides. In places with guns, the completed suicide rate is higher, the attempted rate is the same.
Re: (Score:2)
That is not the problem. The problem is that people will die from the heat when AC begins to not be available and even water may become a problem.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
That is not the problem. The problem is that people will die from the heat when AC begins to not be available and even water may become a problem.
For some reason France has decided that A/C is bad, and they have lost over 1,000 French senior citizens to the heat waves sweeping across Europe.
https://www.independent.co.uk/... [independent.co.uk]
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I really do not get the anti-AC sentiments here in Europe. Yes, 20 years ago, there was zero need for AC, but that has very obviously changed. The only calculation I did was how long I have to work to finance the AC electricity and AC itself for running it for a day. Came out to less than 10 minutes and that, I think, is entirely worthwhile. Also, obviously, solar brings in more power when the sun blazes, so....
You first (Score:3, Insightful)
Turn off the AC to your office. Lead by example.
Transmission lines not power plants (Score:5, Insightful)
Henrico county (aka where Richmond Virginia is located) has enough power plants, they are short on transmission lines.
This is a common issue, as it is easier to convince Dominion (or other electrical companies) to build a new power plant, they are revenue generators. Few power plant have lost money. But substations and other transmission costs can be built in the wrong location and cost you more money than they generate.
So transmission lines tend to be looked at as infrastructure that costs you money, especially if it is not near a heavy population center.
Re: (Score:3)
The tragedy of the commons all over. Well, at least Europe seem to have woken up and is now strongly investing into transmission infrastructure. The failure of that happening in the US nicely shows that market-driven infrastructure does not work. Of course, for community-driven infrastructure, you need sane leadership, so ....
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
That's literally the dream scenario for a power plant because for many types of generation having to ramp up and down is more costly than delivering a fixed amount of power.
Unfortunately, it's the dream scenario for the old kinds of power stations that we want to be moving away from, like coal, gas and nuclear. Solar and wind like loads that can adapt to their inherent variability because, otherwise, expensive storage is required.
Re: (Score:2)
A data center is a type of industry that wants a very consistent and fixed amount of power
Depending on how they're run. For capital expenditure, sure you want to get the ROI as quickly as possible and run it to the max. But opex ain't free and you can ramp computers up and down pretty quickly.
Re: (Score:2)
Build data centers next to power plants. Problem solved.
Now, where's my Nobel Prize?
Re: (Score:2)
It almost seems like utilities infrastructure should be a public utility instead of a private monopoly.
Who could have seen this coming (Score:4)
I can't believe it. Surely those "ai haters" weren't telling the truth. Come on.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think the energy prices might be increasing, thus necessitating this letter from the county? It surely couldn't be the increased demand from all the data centers, could it?
Well, looking at the past 10 years it seems that Virginia had kept rates considerably lower than surrounding areas. And even after this jump they're on the lower side of regional energy inflation.
I used some of the evil AI to poke at things and it shakes out like this:
Cumulative 10-Year Price Growth (2016 vs. 2026)
According to historical data trackers and recent U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports, the Central East Coast regional footprint has seen some of the most volatile electricity pricing in the nation:Central East Coast States (NJ, NY, PA, DE, MD):
Over the last 10 years, retail electricity prices across all sectors in these neighboring states rose by an average of 35% to 45%.
In particular, states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey experienced massive wholesale and retail spikes due to regional grid capacity updates.
VEPGA Negotiated Portfolio: From 2016 to 2024, VEPGA’s collective bargaining kept municipal rate growth remarkably flat—averaging under 1.5% in annual baseline changes. However, the 2025 base adjustments and the massive 24.9% hike starting July 1, 2026, pushed VEPGA's total 10-year cumulative increase to roughly 32% to 35%.
further poking at ye olde Gemini, credibly suggests that ~30% of the price increases area-wide ARE from grid capacity buildout and the rest is just general inflation, including fuel, and catchup maintenance.
So a 25% rate increase this year,
Electricity is not free (Score:5, Insightful)
// ... hosts 37 data centers and there are plans to build 17 more ...
I'm confused. Why not let the data centers pay for the electricity they use?
Who would build a data center without some kind of plan for providing funds for energy?
Re:Electricity is not free (Score:5, Informative)
I'm confused. Why not let the data centers pay for the electricity they use? Who would build a data center without some kind of plan for providing funds for energy?
That's the problem. They are buying up the energy, and outbidding the schools for it, thus raising the price.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. Electricity is a traded good. If one consumer needs more and can pay for it, the price for everybody goes up.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
For arbitrary traded goods, maybe. But for something essential like electricity or clean water, increasing everyone's prices on account of one customer is a good way to make all of the other customers very angry and potentially lead to riots, so it's not a very good idea.
Re: (Score:2)
potentially lead to riots
The customers of said data centers tend to be primarily government departments. They have pretty good security. Drones, tanks, etc.
You won't riot.
Re: (Score:3)
If it hasn't already I suspect the real issue is that there were plenty of NIMBY laws that made it difficult to build power plants that didn't also apply to data centers. I'm sure someone
Re: (Score:2)
Make sure that it's no less difficult to build power plants than it is to build data centers and the problem becomes self-correcting.
Eventually (well kinda) but the market is only ever reactive. Most people realise there's something wrong with "Capitalism therefore it's OK kids go without power for the next 5 years". And not everyone believes that rich people should get richer at their expense for the purposes of "growth" who's benefits are only seen elsewhere.
Re: Electricity is not free (Score:2)
Most civilised countries consider that a number of things, including electricity, are a public service and therefore heavily regulated to avoid this kind of issue. Letting the market sort it out is only great if you don't care about the common good.
Re: Electricity is not free (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The people building the datacentres had a plan. The people approving them, and offering big tax incentives, also had a plan. Part of that plan was electricity rates going up.
Re: (Score:2)
Now that I think about it, the list I considered only mentioned those two..
Re: (Score:2)
a) Supply curves slope upwards.
b) Datacenters are paying with Other People's Money; schools are paying with taxpayer money.
Re: (Score:2)
Other States have rules that require datacenters to power themselves without raising rates for anyone else. Does Virginia not?
We're being lied to about these data centers (Score:5, Insightful)
We are always being told by the billionaire tech bros and the county supervisors they pay off to have these monstrosity put in their countie that they won't consume resources nor will electricity rates go up. They're lying as this story points out quite clearly. The already wealthy pocket huge profits while the citizens bear the costs.
Re:We're being lied to about these data centers (Score:5, Interesting)
My small town planning commission voted for a data center, despite public outcry. Afterwards, one of the member's wife took a job with Amazon corporate and he resigned. They don't even hide it.
I recently got a letter from the water authority that I'm supposed to turn off the sink while I'm brushing my teeth and I'll get fined if I wash my car.
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile, the data center will consume the equivalent of neighborhoods of reidential houses 24 hours/day, 365 days/year. They won't have caps imposed and will probably receive discounts that allow them water at a price order of magnitude less than the homeowners. When rolling blackouts come, they'll skip the data centers and extend the duration on everyone else.
BTW, it sounds like your town is in dire need of a recall.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A data center near me was in the news (here) recently, because the town's new water meters didn't work right, leading to the datacenter being underbilled. The story was framed as the datacenter trying to steal water.
Re: (Score:2)
North of Richmond .... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm going to guess the data centers are north of Richmond. :-(
Henrico County wraps clockwise around the top of Richmond from about the 9 to 5 o'clock positions. Most data centers are just north of Richmond, some are east and south-east. Plug, "Henrico County data center" into google Maps for pins.
Winter is coming (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Most of Virginia doesn't get all that cold. 30 kids in a room with limited air circulation should suffice, even without lots of insulation. Air conditioning, however, might well be a different matter.
Re: (Score:2)
I went to school in VA. There was rarely a day that the heat would get turned on. They're big monolithic heat islands full of children, calorie powered.
We also didn't have A/C back then, either. Windows would be open all day. I doubt they do that now.
More get-rich-quick nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)
Strategic investments, like in educating kids? That have positive effect over their whole 45 year work life? Naa, we do not do that. We must make money NOW!
Re: (Score:2)
Strategic investments, like in educating kids? That have positive effect over their whole 45 year work life? Naa, we do not do that. We must make money NOW!
Why educate kids? We don't need them to be intelligent. We have artificial intelligence now!
Ration (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, how about putting the burden on the data center operators?
Just charge the data center owners/operators (Score:5, Interesting)
Since those data centers are a big reason for the cost of electricity going up, why not just make the data centers pay enough in local taxes to cover the utility price increases for government AND all the "regular" citizens? Give the people a tax cut for the amount they would get as a rebate from charging the data centers for what they are doing to the local populace.
Re: (Score:2)
Pointless (Score:4, Interesting)
Based on a quick search, about 9,000 idle usb chargers would have to be unplugged to equate to a single GPU running a training task. The extra wear/tear on the outlets could eclipse the savings.
Re: (Score:2)
utilities will always stick it to the little guy (Score:5, Interesting)
Hey Siri (Score:2)
Hey Siri, are you taking the piss?
Why? (Score:2)
I know this comes off trollish, but: why can't these power companies (which are usually public utilities) just build more power production instead of jacking prices? What's the deal? Why is this a "hate on AI that runs in datacenters" problem, and not a "just produce more power" problem?
Re: (Score:2)
One doesn't "just" build a significant power plant; quick search says 2-5 years. Even then you have the problem of transmission infrastructure struggling to get the power to the right places.
* If you think people NIMBY a datacenter, power plants are worse.
* Lead time to permit and build a plant is nontrivial.
* Installing a new rail line or pipeline to get fuel to the plant is slow.
Now, market forces will tend to incentivize more power plant builds if there are economic gains to be had. However a new plant
Re: (Score:2)
Last I checked power plants are not free.
Solar panels and wind energy (Score:3, Interesting)
This is where I don't understand the local government.. if there's a use case for them to get solar panels and wind turbines on the school properties - it's this. The extra money that they'll be forking over year after year, can instead be spent on solar. The time of the year where they get max generation is also when school is not in session. That ought to help with the overall energy consumption.
The problem here is that it takes some political will to get something like this done. You'll have to tell people that you don't care about the looks, but rather the end result - less overall taxes and so forth.. but sadly, I don't see that happening.
Re: Solar panels and wind energy (Score:2)
Dereg! (Score:2)
sit in the damned dark and accept your punishment for greed and ignorance!
Let data centers finance schools (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Put a bag of ice over the thermostat.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Turn off your computers/laptops at the end of each workday.
Stop doing that. Sure, laptops I get. They're likely disconnected from the network anyway. But desktops need to be online after hours to get updates and reboot. Or do you want to waste time during first period as your computer slows down then automatically reboots with an extra boot-wait?
No, I don't want to wait, but I don't think 50 computers should have to be left on in a lab an extra 12 hours a day to do an hours' worth of updates and reboot, either. What would be better is if operating systems weren't absolute shit that requires a gigabyte's worth of updates every 2 weeks.
Re: (Score:2)
What would be better is if operating systems weren't absolute shit that requires a gigabyte's worth of updates every 2 weeks.
That would be ideal, but barring that, we could use WoL to wake them up when they need updates. The technology is only what, 30 years old?
Re: (Score:2)
Or you schedule your updates yourself. Why not click "update now", update, and then shut down the PC? Seems Microsoft really got people conditioned to follow the update schedule Windows decides for you.
Re: (Score:2)
At my workplace running updates now takes an hour or two due to the fact that they have maximized anti-virus settings, so letting the updates roll in at night is the best alternative.
Re: (Score:2)
What about the "update & shutdown" option?
Re: (Score:2)
There is a thing called Wake On Lan that does a fantastic job of turning your system on when the IT folks decide
it's time to update / upgrade your system.