Microsoft to cover full electricity costs for its AI data centers

Microsoft said in a blog post that it will ask utilities and public commissions to set rates high enough to cover the full electricity costs for its data centers, including infrastructure additions, and that it will not ask the public to pay those added costs, the post by Smith said.

Smith acknowledged residential electricity rates have recently risen in dozens of states, driven partly by inflation, supply chain constraints, and grid upgrades, and wrote communities "value new jobs and property tax revenue, but not if they come with higher power bills or tighter water supplies." In Wisconsin, Microsoft is supporting a new rate structure that would charge "Very Large Customers," including data centers, the cost of the electricity required to serve them.

Smith wrote that Microsoft disagrees the public should help pay for the added electricity needed for AI: "Especially when tech companies are so profitable, we believe that it’s both unfair and politically unrealistic for our industry to ask the public to shoulder added electricity costs for AI." On water use, Microsoft plans a 40 percent improvement in data center water-use intensity by 2030 and said it has launched a new AI data center design using a closed-loop system that constantly recirculates cooling liquid, which the company said has been deployed in Wisconsin and Georgia and means potable water is no longer needed for cooling.

Key Topics

Tech, Microsoft, Wisconsin, Georgia, Data Centers, Electricity Rates