Reading only the abstract: "We estimate that data centers caused average retail electricity rates to fall modestly in the United States from 2015 to 2024 using an instrumental variables approach... We caution that future supply constraints could reverse the effect."

I've only heard about datacenter protests in the past 2 years. So perhaps what the authors warned about is happening now?

Data centers directly led to my rates increasing over the last ~6 months where several came online locally without supply increasing. Natural gas prices also impacted it, but the data center buildout over the last year has not helped.

That article is two years out of date, and looking at nationwide electricity usage doesn't account for the local impacts of these data centers.

(* nb4 "it's summer": talking about price per kWhr)

Is your implication that something responsible for 5% of the demand is responsible for 5% of the price?

Because... that's not how prices work. And certainly not energy prices, which have both significant capex requirements, spot-market pricing dynamics, and capacity headroom requirements.