llm-wiki/raw/articles/henrico-data-center-electricity-costs-2026.md

source_url, ingested, sha256, discovered_from

source_url	ingested	sha256	discovered_from
https://www.404media.co/henrico-virginia-datacenter-energy-cost-email/	2026-07-01	da24aad9d4051d53ad5238c4657eeb0d4f407f92616bfc5b1a5270ed3bafa592	platform channel_name channel_id message_id author_id posted_at message_excerpt discord tw 1477793137064935675 1521838222982779060 1477793167486226708 2026-07-01T11:21:46Z 404 Media link about data center electricity cost increases in Henrico County and the local infrastructure cost of AI compute.

On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity. “Beginning July 1 ^st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically — by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead,” a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).

Henrico County is a community of more than 350,000 people in eastern Virginia just outside of Richmond. It also hosts 37 data centers and there are plans to build 17 more, including plans to convert hundreds of acres of Civil War battlefields into data centers. Thanks to its proximity to DC and vast amounts of land, Henrico County became a data center hub seemingly overnight and its services clients big and small. Meta built a data center there in 2017.