In other words, large “base loads” like data centers could both reduce the average power bill AND contribute to capacity shortages and load shedding.
They often have an individual contract with the utility and participate in load regulation: when you need liquefy a few tons of steel, those heaters have a lot of thermal inertia. If A/C loads are high they'll turn the power down, if wind output is high, they'll turn it up, and so on.
Do data centers participate in the same sort of dynamic pricing and power adjustment? I understand that they're spinning up and powering down instances on demand, and that those demands are somewhat outside of their control, but are they able (and willing, and desirous of reducing their electric bills) to dynamically adjust compute in response to utility rates?
There is not a good picture in aggregate though so it creates all kinds of narratives.
A few of them in the future pipeline swear they will have nuclear but I don't see that coming to fruition soon.
This is texas, they can't even form regulations that don't different between counties, or figure out zoning laws in Houston.
They are mad that they aren't getting special treatment. They want to be treated better than the aluminum smelting plant.
Many regions/markets have relatively stable retail rate structures, i.e., residential and most commercial customers don’t pay day-to-day and hour-to-hour electricity market prices. Their per-kWh and per-kW rates are adjusted on much longer time scales, like once a year.
So, big base load customers sign contracts in one year, resulting in better utilization of grid assets, so prices stay lower in the next year(s). But if those customers are not flexible (or are not on a rate structure that encourages them to be flexible), they could contribute to short-term capacity shortages this year. And that will have no impact on many rate payers’ bills, ant least not before rates get adjusted later.