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Look at that chart. For 20 years — from 2000 to 2020 — the average residential electricity rate in America crawled from 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to 13.2 cents. That’s about a penny a year. Barely enough to notice on your bill.
Then something changed. In just six years, that rate jumped to 18.2 cents. Five cents of increase in six years... after five cents of increase took the previous twenty.
Most people assume it’s just inflation. And yes, oil prices and grid upgrades played a role. But there’s a bigger reason your bill is climbing — and it landed in the headlines yesterday. Broadcom, the AI chipmaker, reported $10.8 billion in AI chip revenue last quarter. That’s a 143% jump from last year. Those chips power data centers. And those data centers are devouring electricity at a rate the grid wasn’t built to handle.
The EIA says U.S. electricity demand is growing at its fastest four-year pace since 2005. The reason? Data centers. A study out of NC State estimates they could push electricity costs up another 6% to 29% by 2030 — on top of what you’re already paying. In northern Virginia, where the biggest server farms sit, wholesale power prices have spiked so fast that state regulators are scrambling.
Now... the average American household paid about $115 a month for electricity in 2020. Today that number is roughly $163. That’s an extra $576 a year. And here’s the part that really gets me: the companies driving most of this demand — Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft — aren’t paying your higher rate. They’re cutting special deals with utilities for bulk power. You’re subsidizing the buildout through your monthly bill.
The AI revolution is real. But like every revolution, somebody pays for it. Right now, that somebody is you.
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