Silicon Valley’s vacationland needs a new energy provider just as AI is driving prices up | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. It’s no secret that AI data centers have been straining the grid. But Silicon Valley has been relatively insulated from it all, thanks to high land and power prices that have pushed hyperscaler projects elsewhere. The tech elite might soon get a taste of the power crunch, though. The Bay Area’s vacationland, Lake Tahoe, has less than a year to find a new energy supplier. By May 2027, Liberty Utilities’ agreement with NV Energy will come to an end. NV Energy’s power will be redirected elsewhere in Nevada, where data centers have been booming. Both Liberty Utilities and NV Energy have said the wind-down has been long planned, and NV Energy said data centers aren’t to blame. But it’s hard to see how they don’t play a role. NV Energy alone has requests for more than 22 gigawatts of load, which as a Bloomberg report points out, is more than 40x what Lake Tahoe uses at its peak. If data centers weren’t in play, it’s easy to see a world in which Liberty Utilities and NV Energy renew thei