17 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
17 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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source_url: "https://www.404media.co/henrico-virginia-datacenter-energy-cost-email/"
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ingested: 2026-07-01
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sha256: da24aad9d4051d53ad5238c4657eeb0d4f407f92616bfc5b1a5270ed3bafa592
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discovered_from:
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platform: discord
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channel_name: tw
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channel_id: "1477793137064935675"
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message_id: "1521838222982779060"
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author_id: "1477793167486226708"
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posted_at: 2026-07-01T11:21:46Z
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message_excerpt: "404 Media link about data center electricity cost increases in Henrico County and the local infrastructure cost of AI compute."
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---
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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 <sup>st</sup>, 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).
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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](https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/henrico-county/residents-push-back-qts-data-center-expansion-may-19-2026?ref=404media.co), 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](https://www.richmonder.org/henrico-became-a-data-center-hub-seemingly-overnight-how-did-it-happen-and-what-are-the-impacts/?ref=404media.co) and its services clients [big and small](https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-02-19/henrico-county-white-oak-technology-park-iron-mountain-data-center?ref=404media.co). Meta [built a data center](https://datacenters.atmeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Meta_s-Henrico-Data-Center.pdf?ref=404media.co) there in 2017. |