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Re:Data centers need power – lower income, rural residents p... by AnthonyMouse on Thursday November 12, 2026 @08:12PM (#50476817)
The billed price per kWh includes the cost of both generation and distribution. Residential customers pay higher distribution costs per kWh because the same mile of residential power lines only carries kW of power instead of MW without correspondingly consuming thousands of times less land or requiring thousands of times less maintenance.

Meanwhile the thing they're outbidding you on is generation.

Re:Data centers need power – lower income, rural residents p... by rconti on Friday November 13, 2026 @09:01AM (#50483619)
So you’re confirming that, if distribution costs go up, consumers pay a greater share of that, IN ADDITION to the generation costs we’re bidding on in the market?

Also I’m sharing 99.99% of the distribution costs with my neighbors.

Re:Data centers need power – lower income, rural residents p... by AnthonyMouse on Friday November 13, 2026 @11:55AM (#50486251)
> So you’re confirming that, if distribution costs go up, consumers pay a greater share of that

Completely the opposite. Consumers are charged more for distribution because distribution to consumers costs more per kWh to build and maintain. Distribution to sites with large consumption has a much lower cost per kWh, which those sites are already paying, which is why they pay less per kWh even with that cost already included.

> Also I’m sharing 99.99% of the distribution costs with my neighbors.

Your neighbors who are also consuming an average of ~1kW, so the ~20 houses on your mile-long suburban street are consuming ~20kW in total. A 100MW+ site which is a mile from the substation or power plant has distribution costs that are thousands of times lower per kWh, will generally be located close to them for exactly that reason, and may also be sharing the same lines with other neighboring commercial/industrial sites.