Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to

[Nittersing]

Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers

https://fortune.com/2026/05/12/lake-tahoe-data-center-49000-residents-power-source/

Lake Tahoe doesn’t know where its power will come from after next ski season—and it’s a major problem for the 49,000 residents who call the region home.

The Sierra Nevada tourist hub—home to ski resorts, lakeside casinos, and roughly 25 to 28 million annual visitors—is facing an energy crisis with a familiar culprit: the data centers powering the AI boom.

NV Energy, the Nevada utility that has supplied the bulk of Lake Tahoe’s electricity for decades, told Liberty Utilities—the small California company that services the region—that it will stop providing power after May 2027. The reason? NV Energy needs the capacity for data centers. As in: the energy supplier for the Lake Tahoe region is telling the utility company that it has less than a year to find another power source.

Northern Nevada has become one of the fastest-growing data-center corridors in the country. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have either built or are planning facilities around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno. The Desert Research Institute, using data from NV Energy’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan, found that the 12 data center projects located overwhelmingly in Northern Nevada could drive 5,900 megawatts of new demand by 2033. At a regional business event last fall, NV Energy’s director of business development called the moment “unprecedented,” saying the company was eager to serve the new industrial load but that it would not “impact our existing customer base.”

[sakabatou]

1. I can see the data centers already being ransacked, trashed and burned

[Ritabert]

2. Time to go solar with backup propane for heat

[CurtEastPoint]

3. Not meaning to sound like old man yelling at clouds but f'ing crypto and AI... two huge scams foisted on us

[Cheezoholic]

10. You're not. I'm a retired IT professional and get bashed on this board of all places that I don't get it

I get it all too well and there's nothing pretty about the road forward with these 2 tech's if left to run amok as they are currently. Sometimes our experience can smell BS when others can't.

[CurtEastPoint]

23. Retired IT as well. I get what you're saying

[charliea]

26. You're soooo right!

I too am a retired software engineer, and I can only agree with you. I never thought that an technology for immutable recording (blockchain) combined with distributed databases (the ledgers of crypto) would be used to create a valueless currency based solely on numerical calculations and spent electricity. In my opinion it should loose whatever value is assigned to it as processing power becomes increasingly less expensive.

I always thought that emulating neural networks was the right approach for computer based knowledge studies and was excited when zero shot learning was coming online. I didn't conceive of the new robber barons of the 21st century being unconstrained by a supine (bought and paid for) government. Like some municipalities charge developers for system costs created by their activities, I'd suggest making the data centers pay for their own new power generation needs.

To my mind what they are calling AI is just statistical interpretation of an immensely large database, potentially useful but not really creative. While sizes are not publicly released, outside analysis suggests ChatGPT 5.5 for example has a parameter database on the order of 1.5 trillion parameters. A truly super Eliza.

[underpants]

4. Money rules. Data centers can just buy exclusive access I guess.

So the people and state tax generating businesses have a year ONE YEAR to find and tap into another grid?

[Joinfortmill]

5. WTF?

[dem4decades]

6. My wife's Trump loving cousin has a house in Tahoe, take his power.

He won't mind.

[RussBLib]

7. These data centers are like fast-growing parasites

Nobody asked for them except for the giant companies and mega-billionaires. This story is a new one: taking power away from those who already have it and use it to give it to the data centers. I thought they were supposed to build their own power plants since they need so much juice. Not as easy to create your own water supply however.

All this bullshit to help an industry that most citizens do not even want. To help an industry that just might want to kill us all.

https://russblib.blogspot.com/?m=1

[eppur_se_muova]

8. "like" ??? What's missing ? nt

[RussBLib]

18. I give up

What’s missing?

https://russblib.blogspot.com/?m=1

[TheProle]

9. This thread has consumed 110ml of water and counting.

[IcyPeas]

11. They all LIE...

...the company was eager to serve the new industrial load but that it would not “impact our existing customer base.”

The whole town should sue their asses.

[FakeNoose]

12. I'm sure the town officials were given hefty gratuities to allow this to happen, so they'll pass

This is the new way that America does business.

[PatrickforB]

17. No, it is the way we've always done business in the Third World. Now we are just experiencing it here. n/t

[Iggo]

13. Are these data centers on wheels?

[Buddyzbuddy]

14. A.I. being utilized to make the world a better place.

Dumb ass, greedy f*cking politicians.
Between A.I. and digital currency, humans are going to have to give up drinking water and using electricity.
That's progress for you.

[BattleRow]

27. When are they going to start charging us for air?

[OGBuzz]

15. Calling Governor Newsom! You can't just cut 50K people from their utilities,

and where's all that water going to come from to cool the shit? Are they planning to drain Lake Tahoe?

[C Moon]

19. This is in Nevada near Reno. Why call the governor of California?

Or are you asking him to put pressure on NV? They have a bunch of them.

[Mister Ed]

21. Lake Tahoe straddles the state line between Nevada and California.

The majority of the people affected are California residents, although a large minority also live on the Nevada side of the lake.

Also important to the question of water usage is the fact that the lake's outlet, and the dam that controls it, is in California at Tahoe City.

[C Moon]

29. Ah. That makes sense. I'm sure he'll have something to say about this.

[OGBuzz]

22. Then why not take the power from Reno?

Doesn't Lake Tahoe straddle the border?

[Mister Ed]

20. Well, come to think of it, I wonder if they are planning to draw down Lake Tahoe.

I believe the principal source of water for the Reno/Sparks area is the Truckee River, which is Tahoe's only outlet. The Truckee's rate of flow is determined by the dam at Tahoe City, where the lake flows into the river.

As the need for water rises to meet the insatiable thirst of these data centers, I imagine that the technocrats who own them will exert increasing pressure to open up the dam, thus lowering the lake level.

And what happens when the lake's water level drops below the lake's natural rim, and water stops flowing over the dam altogether? Well, rather than let the Truckee run dry, I imagine that it might be deemed necessary to blast away some rock at the lake's outlet to allow the lake to drain even more.

It's a seemingly unthinkable scenario, but it seems that as the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands continues to accelerate, nothing is impossible. Would the likes of Musk, or Theil, or Andreesen really be unwilling to do it?

[OGBuzz]

24. Would they be unwilling to destroy the lake? Not for a second.

[GiqueCee]

16. These AI bastards...

... are ripping off Americans left, right, upside down, and sideways. Stealing intellectual property, water, and electricity, and demanding indemnity for their crimes. Hear this, you thieving assholes: PAYBACK. IS. GONNA. BE. A. BITCH!

[OGBuzz]

25. And this is how these people think!

Sam Altman: "AI will most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime there will be great companies created with serious machine learning."

[BattleRow]

28. Power to the people!!

Pun intended.

[haele]

30. The data center wasn't the only reason they're losing power...

Last year, the small California power company that was operating in the western region of the lake decided to fold and organize a transfer of customers to NV Power, which then had to expand to support around 5K residents, a resort, and small businesses.
The dara center agreement basically was one of those "Hey thanks, we need the money right now to expand and support our new customers; after all, you won't be ready for five years, right? Right? Wait, you want power now?" situations.

[mackdaddy]

31. Electricity, Natural Gas and Water rates will all skyrocket.

Simple price/demand economics with this much demand prices will go up. Homes are competing with AI Datacenter monsters for all of these and getting the exhaust and pollution in their face.

And AI seems to be crushing any IP laws for patents and copyrights. They are hoovering up all text, audio and video to 'train' their AI. There are several competing AI companies, but they just seem to be copying each other as soon as any one of them make any kind of breakthrough. How long until they all buy each other out and morph into a single entity?

[Initech]

32. Fuck AI! Fuck data centers!