Spain is betting very strong for the development and creation of new data centers. The AI boom has infected our country, and although that attracts investment and economic capital, it can also lead to serious problems for consumers. Especially a very clear one: that we pay more for the light.
Spain, care with data centers. In recent months we have seen how Data centers construction projects grow In our country. It is estimated that in the Community of Madrid there will be a power of 1.7 GW in 2030, which is paradoxical, because it is the region with greater energy deficit in Spain and the one that is staying with a good part of these projects.
Aragon, in another league. Aragon has so many projects of data centers that He showed his disappointment When he knew that the reinforcement of the electricity network for those facilities throughout Spain will be 3.8 GW. Those responsible for the Aragonese government described the figure of “scarce”, especially considering that this region has projects that projects that projects that projects that They would exhaust that capacity alone.
The US teaches us (worrying) future. A Bloomberg investigation It reveals how in the last five years the creation of new data centers is making the light invoice rise remarkably. Those centers, previously dedicated to expanding the cloud infrastructure and now totally focused on the AI boom, are behind that increase in light invoice. Energy consumption is triggered in these facilities, and ends up affecting electricity prices in surrounding regions.
Prices that almost quadruplic. In 2020 Baltimore residents paid average $ 17 per MW/h. In 2025 that price is $ 38 per MW/h. In Buffalo the thing is even worse, and prices have tripled in five years: they have gone from $ 11 to 33 per MW/h. In the areas of the United States close to large concentrations of data centers, the wholesale price of electricity has risen up to 267% In the last five years.
LMP are nodes of the electricity grid that determine the wholesale price of electricity. Almost three out of four have seen price increases when they are close to data centers. Those who are in farther areas have come to see their reduced prices. Source: Bloomberg.
Unequal climb. The study reveals how wholesale electricity prices in the US have increased significantly in recent years, although it is true that these increases have been applied unequally at the geographical level: certain areas have seen modest increases, but others have seen how the light of the light was fired and grew up to that aforementioned 267%, close to quadruple.
The condemnation of data centers. 70% of the points at which price increases were recorded are less than 80 kilometers of data centers with significant activity. It is a fact that makes it clear that the impact of these data centers on the light of the residents is clear.
And this goes to more. Current estimates, Indicates Bnefprevent the energy demand for data centers in the US will double for 2035 and will be the largest increase in energy demand since the 60s. Thus, in ten years that demand will represent 9% of the total. At the global level, the data centers are expected to consume more than 4% of the electricity consumed in 2035. If those facilities were a country, they would be the room in energy consumption, only behind China, USA and India.
Perfect storm. The demand is also linked to the rise of cryptodivisas, the impulse of manufacturing in the US and the “electrification of the economy”, which includes areas such as electric vehicles or domestic heating systems. The withdrawal of traditional mining facilities in areas such as Baltimore has only aggravated the economic problem: there is less energy supply and more demand, which makes prices again increase.
The world already knows what comes over and is reacting. What is happening in the US is already causing reactions in other countries.
- Holland: Water and energy needs made the Amsterdam City Council in 2019 imposed A moratorium for the construction of new data centers.
- Singapore: also established a pause for the creation of this type of facilities between 2019 and 2022, although the government made clear which would be more selective in future projects.
- Ireland: In 2024 the country reached a worrying milestone. Data centers They already consumed more than households. 5% of the country’s total consumption went through in 2015 to 18% in 2022 and 21% in 2023. Household consumption represented that year 18%.
The solution: that the Big Tech pay that invoice. Public service companies in the US such as Dominion Power are clear that “data centers should pay the full cost of their energy consumption.” Large technological ones know very well that these facilities raise an extraordinary energy demand, and They are investigating solutions like him Use of SMR reactors for their AI data centers. The idea is interesting, But complex.
Supply and demand. Spain faces a future in which energy supply and demand could be unbalanced as it is already happening in the United States. If data centers begin to impose more and more load on the network, it is reasonable to think that the cost of electricity increases and causes the least desirable effect for users: the rise in the light invoice. Renewables could help mitigate the problem, but only If the network is capable of absorbing Both the new generation and the new mass demand of the data centers.
Image | Microsoft
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