Energy Institute Blog

I don't know what to tell you other than this is well-established [1][2][3][4].

Also, what exactly is a "well run utility"? IMHO all utilities should be municipality or state owned. All privatization does is transfer wealth from the government and the not-wealthy to the already-wealthy. I suspect you might not agree however.

There are caps on how much utilities can charge but they're allowed to absorb capex (eg by building new transmission lines to a new DC) and if the utility has to buy electricity on the spot market because of increased demand (as was the case with crypto mining in upstate New York), then that raises the per-kWh cost of electricity for everyone, which is great in a cost-plus model.

We've seen this exact thing with healthcare insurance premiums. By law, a certain percentage of premiums has to be spent on giving care. Sounds good, right? So how do you, as an insurance company get around that? You push for higher premiums because that same percentage of profit now means more money. And how do you increase healthcare spend to keep that percentage intact? By spending with providers you also own.

[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-electricity-prices/

[2]: https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/what-will-data-centers-do-to-your-electric-bill/

[3]: https://www.techpolicy.press/how-your-utility-bills-are-subsidizing-power-hungry-ai/

[4]: https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/how-data-centers-are-driving-up-your

Simply too expensive, and large scale can undercut: "We know that residential rooftop solar is much more expensive than grid-scale renewables. At least 4 times more expensive, according to Lazard estimates.", from "Does Rooftop Solar Help the Distribution System?" https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2018/06/25/does-rooftop-solar-help-the-distribution-system/

Also the home owner takes on the financial risk of the install. If a utility installed on homes they would need to have a lien on the home, legal costs, marketing costs, and they would still have other risks of default.

The article mentions one place it does make sense: "Cohen and company find capacity benefits exceeding $60 kilowatt-year in the top 1% of all locations. This is about 10 times what they find for average capacity benefits. It makes sense that, for example, certain circuits are very close to needing a capacity upgrade, and that benefits would be large in these places."

Your link appears paywalled, here are some others:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC?locations=US

https://www.google.com/search?q=us+power+consumption&oq=us+power+consumption

Also, I have no skin in the game, but the US deviating from this isn't really a sign that it's flat out wrong.

I also found this article with some attempts to explain the plateau/decline in the US.

https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/evidence-of-a-decline-in-electricity-use-by-u-s-households/

I don't love wordpress articles, but I'll see if I can find some better source material. Their argument is that it supports the Rebound Effect – US is using more lighting (lumens) but less energy because of efficiency gains in light bulbs!

Wow, I was going to doubt your figures, but you seem to be right:
https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2022/08/15/how-many-u-s-households-dont-have-air-conditioning/

I've lived all around the US, and don't think I've ever lived anywhere with central air. Well, that's not quite true: in New Mexico I had a roof mounted swamp cooler, but that's evaporative cooling and not a heat pump. Elsewhere I've occasionally had and used a portable compressor unit, but rarely. I hadn't realized air conditioning was so overwhelmingly prevalent. Based on people I know and associate with, I would have guessed less than half that rate.

That's still not enough to bridge the gap between coal and gas. See for example this article:

https://www.ffe.de/en/publications/merit-order-shifts-and-their-impact-on-the-electricity-price/

The US is an anomaly due to shale gas:

https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/how-much-has-shale-gas-saved-u-s-consumers/