AI data centers drive Rust Belt factory power bills to record highs
The post AI data centers drive Rust Belt factory power bills to record highs appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Manufacturers across the US industrial heartland are taking up record electricity costs as AI data centers crowd onto the same regional grid, with one Ohio brickmaker watching a single monthly charge climb from $1,600 to $12,000, according to a Reuters review of energy data and interviews with about a dozen firms. This rising cost is concentrated inside the territory run by PJM Interconnection, the largest US grid operator, stretching from New Jersey to northern Illinois and reaching south to Tennessee. Five of the eight states currently seen as emerging data center hubs sit in the Rust Belt, per Synergy Research Group, and a single server warehouse can draw as much power as a mid-sized town. Capacity charges are the main issue The hardest hit to these factories is the capacity charge, a fee paid to generators to ensure supply remains available for peak demand. For househol