Am I alone in wondering whether power and connectivity for consumers will be throttled to satisfy the bit barn's appetite?

The US may end up with a nation wide "freeze" while the datacenters burn all the power to cool their GPUs.

I think that will be decided on a state by state basis. If you're in a "red" state with a MAGA governor then you're probably OK.

@AC

"I think that will be decided on a state by state basis. If you're in a "red" state with a MAGA governor then you're probably OK."

Is that to suggest the blue states would leave their people to freeze? I heard of some utility company already remotely messing with peoples air-conditioning to save power.

I think red states get the power stations and new grid outlays. Blue states get nothing.

This is MAGA, killing of America.

I heard of some utility company already remotely messing with peoples air-conditioning to save power.

Which utility companies?

In which US States?

Which make/model of A/C units were affected?

How were they "remotely messed with"?

When?

How much power was "saved"?

I think the OP is referencing a tiny number of AC units enrolled in demand side response programmes. I don't think many domestic customers will be involved, but business customers with proper FM arrangements probably do have their AC loads signed up for DSR, since the costs/benefits can make a reasonable business case. Letting an office building temperature creep up by a couple of degrees is probably acceptable for a couple of hours across the peak, and could result in a worthwhile DSR payment.

@Like a badger

"I don't think many domestic customers will be involved"

It came to my attention because domestic users were being hit by this, I am pretty sure it was the California incident I heard of but it seems to have been rolled out a bit further. In the UK we have smart meters with the ability to be remotely turned off, and a lot of people who know about it rejecting them.

@AC

That is a lot of questions. Hopefully this will help you start your search-

https://www.vice.com/en/article/smart-thermostats-are-turning-down-air-conditioners-during-heatwave/

PS

Obama&Biden are obviously to blame for the rise in electricity cost, now and for the coming years. Not the big& beautiful bills of the Orange Gang.

[1]Rising electric bills become political problem for Trump, GOP .

[1] https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5484941-power-bills-trump-gop-electricity-cost-inflation/

> "Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president. It's a very refreshing change," Altman said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I think it's going to set us up for a long period of leading the world, and that wouldn't be happening without your leadership."

This is insane. Not Altman - Altman is behaving rationally here, because this has been shown to work. It's insane that we live in a world where this works. If I were on the receiving end of this level of unctious flattering, I would feel awkward as all hell. It would be frankly embarrassing. This is the kind of line that gets assigned to comic relief characters. What the hell is wrong with Trump's psyche, in order to actually enjoy this?

What the hell is wrong with Trump's psyche, in order to actually enjoy this?

Trump has many flaws, but perhaps not in this case. Want cheap, reliable power? Build nuclear and call it good. Countries that drank the Green kool-aid and decided pre-industrial energy generation was a good idea are starting to realise just how bad that decision is.

But there are other problems..

"In France, we need them in Paris and Marseille, and instead they are in the countryside," he told The Register in April, referring to a French government scheme to provide land close to power plants for new server farms.

I respectfully suggest someone is confused about the difference between "need" and "want". The driver for new DCs is primarily the AI bubble. The vast majority of AI does not need low latency. Real estate costs in Paris and Marseille are also far higher than in other parts of France that would have lower CAPEX thanks to land costs, and lower OPEX if power is cheaper. Plus other potenial benefits, like lower MTTR because engineers might spend less time stuck in Paris or Marseilles traffic, salaries could be lower because staff housing costs are lower. Or just dangling the AI carrott in front of French provincial mayors to build bit-barns in their municipalities.

Some competitors are doing this, ie latency insensitive stuff could maybe stay in the traditional/legacy Paris DCs, but plenty of data could be relocated elsewhere, freeing up Paris capacity for customers who want to pay a hefty premium.

I agree with many of your points but the "green cool aid"?

I'm pro nuclear, let's just get that clear, but there I'd rather have energy independence than reliant on gas and oil from dictatorships (yes we should of been like Norway and not flogged off the North Sea reserves because state ownership=bad),

Everyone waves the English flag and screams "green energy is why bills are so high" without ACTUALLY researching why. Hint it's to do with Gas not "green".

Get a good solid baseline with Nuclear, then look at batteries or better still, hydro to cope with surges.Its not like the UK doesn't need more reservoirs.

Everyone waves the English flag and screams "green energy is why bills are so high" without ACTUALLY researching why. Hint it's to do with Gas not "green".

No, it has everything to do with Green and the insane 'renewables' policy. Because they're both expensive and intermittent, 'renewables' have actually increased dependency on gas to overcome that intermittency. Then, if you ACTUALLY researched energy policy and the consequences, you'd discover inconvenient truths like this-

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/08/22/natural-gas-price-trends/

...But ignoring COVID and Ukraine, current gas prices are not excessive by historical standards, and therefore cannot explain why electricity prices are so high now.

But this is also part of the insanity of UK energy policy. Set electricity price based on gas so that 'renewables' benefit, even though there's no impact on their cost.. And then the biggest lie comes from the Kool-Aid marketers themselves. They tell us that 'renewables' are so wonderful and cheap. So how come the more we add, the more expensive our energy becomes? See also-

https://gridwatch.co.uk/Wind

ps..

then look at batteries or better still, hydro to cope with surges.Its not like the UK doesn't need more reservoirs.

Batteries don't generate power and can only store it for a few minutes, and at a collossal cost. And sure, we could use more reservoirs... But where would you put them? There aren't a lot of locations where new hydro would work, or be cheap.

"Want cheap, reliable power? Build nuclear and call it good"

Reliable, you say. Does being reliable when completed, but completed ten years late count?

And "cheap". You've got me there. Hinkley Point C is already going to cost us £127/MWh, and that is inflation linked through until about 2060. Just to make sure we're properly mired in unaffordable nuclear, they've just agreed to splash £38bn (before the delays and overruns) on Sizewell C, as former EDF and Areva leaders comment that Sizewell will likely be the last EPR built as it's too complex and too costly.

And "cheap". You've got me there. Hinkley Point C is already going to cost us £127/MWh, and that is inflation linked through until about 2060.

You haven't been keeping up with the auction rounds for CfDs, have you? Or the way windmill operators have been pulling bids because they want >£150/MWh and that's without cables, batteries or reliable generation to cater for the frequent times when the wind isn't blowing.

as former EDF and Areva leaders comment that Sizewell will likely be the last EPR built as it's too complex and too costly.

That was G. Brown Esq's fault when his brother worked for EDF and they were in serious need of a bailout. Other reactor designs are available, and other countries are building those for far less than we're being forced to pay.

Nothing you said there had *anything* to do with the comment you were "replying" to, which was solely expressing incredulity at how susceptible Trump is to manipulation via utterly transparent flattery.

That said, it's unsurprising that a shameless apologist like yourself would sanewash Trump here in the only way possible- by avoiding answering the unanswerable and pulling the old political trick of answering the question you'd rather have been asked instead.

Altman is a bitch. And Trump likes bitches.

Those praise sends you a chill down your spine, and people doing the same with Hitler and Stalin appear in your mind...

"What the hell is wrong with Trump's psyche, in order to actually enjoy this?"

[1]Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence, they are not sure of their self-worth and are easily upset by the slightest criticism.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662

Trump/Congress is also making it easier to export natural gas and making it harder to build solar/wind generation. Supply is being constrained as well as demand increasing.

"demand for these transformers across the economy is surging"

I thought that was because the Ukrainians keep having to buy new ones to replace those Vlad keeps blowing up.