Two quick things from my past…
During college in the mind-1970’s I worked off-season in Internal Audit at Chromalloy Photographic, Industries (CPI), a conglomerate’s division which operated photo studios in Sears stores as well as sending traveling teams to schools and churches. Even as a fill-in I wore the accepted accounting uniform, a long sleeve shirt and tie. The venerable downtown office building held the heat very well. Still, while we sweated the ‘keypunch’ ladies came to the cafeteria in heavy sweaters even in August: the data processing floor required a ridiculous amount of energy to keep it cool for the computers.
For a time I served as Executive Director of the Independent Computer Consultants Association. One of the smartest people in that group said two things I’ll never forget. Computer security is an oxymoron. Technology changes before you can adapt.
Most every day proposals for new Data Centers hit the news. From the old Famous Barr warehouse in mid-town St. Louis to farm fields, politicians dream of big developments with massive tax bills… even after they throw caution and incentives to the wind.
Let’s visit reality.
Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Storage require monster computer operations. The current technology eats a tremendous amount of electricity. Some big centers need more juice than 100,000 homes. Published estimates say that in 2024 the centers consumer over 4% of all of America’s electricity. They expect that to rise to at least 8% by 2030, or, an additional; 1% of all electricity generation each year.
That’s great for electric company stockholders but bad for the rest of us. Especially in Missouri. The January 1 – 7, 2026 St. Louis American ran a graphic (from the Center for American Progress) showing that Missouri was among the four highest utility cost states in 2025! Only Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia had higher costs.
Data centers need a lot of electricity all the time. During hot weather they need even more. That means data centers have a major impact on peak demand, the term for the highest reasonably projected use. Ameren and other utilities need to have the capacity to meet that peak demand, meaning they almost always must have extra capacity waiting to be used. Those last extra megawatts get expensive. Every customer pays to have them standing-by.
More data centers mean substantially higher peak demand capacity.
Now, Ameren depends on a geriatric nuclear plant and a bunch of coal plants from the Kennedy and Nixon years. Adding substantial peak demand requires expensive new plants.
Don’t worry. The Missouri Public Service Commission head is married to a utility lobbyist. Under the used car selling governor’s reign Ameren will always get what it wants, we’ll just have to subsidize these new data centers with higher electric bills.
Second, I suspect that somewhere great minds right now are devising more efficient, faster data center technology. I know they will succeed. They always do. A nation which adopted LED light bulbs in just a few years will happily embrace better, cheaper and less energy dependent computer tech. It will happen.
In other words, many big data centers may be obsolete before they turn a profit.
Just say “no” Missouri.
Glenn Koenen
Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/server-racks-on-data-center-5480781/ Modified for content.