{"slug": "henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights", "title": "Henrico County Has 37 Data Centers – and Is Asking Teachers to Turn Off the Lights", "summary": "Henrico County, Virginia, which hosts 37 data centers consuming massive amounts of electricity, is asking teachers and employees to turn off lights and unplug devices to save on power costs after a 25% rate hike. The county's tax breaks attracted data center investment but shifted capacity costs onto residents and schools, with household bills projected to exceed $315 monthly within 15 years.", "body_md": "Somewhere in [Henrico County](https://henrico.gov/), Virginia, a teacher is being asked to shut down a computer at night so the county can shave a few bucks off its electric bill. Meanwhile, [ 37 data centers](https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/06/30/171238/county-with-37-data-centers-asks-schools-to-conserve-electricity?utm_source=rss0.9mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) hum along across roughly\n\n**2,700 acres** of county land, each one drinking power at a scale that makes your home energy use look like a nightlight — a demand surge accelerated by projects like the\n\n[Stargate Project](https://www.gadgetreview.com/openai-and-partners-launch-500-billion-stargate-project). On June 26, County Manager John Vithoulkas emailed thousands of employees — including school staff — with the news: electricity rates jump\n\n**25%** on July 1, adding about\n\n**$5 million** in annual costs. His fix? “Collectively make slight adjustments.”\n\n## The Math Nobody Did Out Loud\n\n*Data centers now drive the majority of wholesale electricity price increases in the region — and your bill reflects it.*\n\nA single **hyperscale data center** can consume over **100 megawatts** — comparable to the usage of tens of thousands of homes. Virginia hosts the world’s largest concentration of these facilities, and PJM’s independent market monitor found data centers drove **63%** of last year’s capacity price increases across the regional grid. That cost doesn’t stay abstract. It lands on every ratepayer in the territory — a pattern familiar to those who’ve followed [tech scandals](https://www.gadgetreview.com/evil-tech-scandals-failures-that-took-advantage-millions-people) where costs are quietly shifted onto ordinary people.\n\nVithoulkas’s conservation email reads like a personal-finance app notification applied to a municipal budget crisis. Employees are advised to:\n\n- Turn off lights\n- Adjust blinds\n- Skip the space heater — each one costs the county $150 to $300 per year in electricity\n\n“Each dollar we can save by conserving electricity is another dollar the county can reinvest into staff and the services we provide our residents,” [he wrote](https://www.404media.co/henrico-virginia-datacenter-energy-cost-email/).\n\nReasonable advice, in isolation. But asking employees to unplug idle chargers while hosting facilities that consume megawatts by the hundred carries a certain dry comedic weight that no county manager memo can fully neutralize.\n\n## The Deal Henrico Made\n\n*Tax breaks attracted billions in investment and funded affordable housing — but the capacity costs weren’t part of the pitch.*\n\nHenrico slashed its data-center equipment tax rate to [ $0.40 per $100](https://www.wtvr.com/2017/04/26/henrico-slashes-tax-rates-for-data-centers-hoping-to-attract-business) of assessed value in 2017. The bet paid off on paper: White Oak Technology Park attracted\n\n**$2.25 billion** in assessed value, with\n\n**$10.6 billion** more in planned investment. The county even channeled revenue into a\n\n**$60 million** Affordable Housing Trust Fund, according to Time Magazine — a genuine, tangible community benefit worth acknowledging.\n\nCapacity costs, however, followed close behind. When data centers spike peak grid demand, utilities must build more infrastructure — and those costs spread across all customers, residential and institutional alike. Energy analysts reviewing PJM data project that average household bills in Dominion’s territory could exceed **$315 per month** within 15 years — a reminder of how many things residents are already [paying too much](https://www.gadgetreview.com/things-youre-paying-too-much-for-without-realizing) for without realizing it. Henrico residents already pay around **$145 monthly**, ranking the county among Virginia’s pricier areas for electricity.\n\n[Meta states](https://www.gadgetreview.com/meta-builds-its-own-skilled-trades-army-with-115-million-job-guarantee) that its global data-center electricity use is matched with 100% clean and renewable energy at the corporate level. Grid-level capacity pricing, though, doesn’t adjust for corporate accounting.\n\nHenrico has begun tightening zoning, imposing noise limits, and restricting where new data centers can locate. Those are meaningful steps. Thirty-seven facilities are already running, however, and the [conservation](https://www.gadgetreview.com/solar-beats-coal-for-first-time-in-us-electricity-history) email has already landed. Residents in counties actively courting this industry may want to keep a close eye on their utility bills — the ask for “slight adjustments” tends to arrive right on schedule.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights", "canonical_source": "https://www.gadgetreview.com/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights", "published_at": "2026-06-30 18:29:49+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-30 18:55:28.041913+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Henrico County", "John Vithoulkas", "PJM", "Dominion Energy", "White Oak Technology Park", "Meta", "Stargate Project", "Time Magazine"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/henrico-county-has-37-data-centers-and-is-asking-teachers-to-turn-off-the-lights.jsonld"}}