There’s a reason electricity prices have been rising. And it’s not data centers.

So this made me laugh: "Economics 101 teaches students that if demand rises, prices tend to go up. [No argument there.] But electricity isn’t like any other economic market. [That’s the funny part.]" I believe the intended meaning was that electricity as a product is somehow unique in the entire world of products and so doesn't follow the same economic logic. As someone who spent 30ish years of my career working in a variety of other product markets I can tell you that's just not the case. What is the case is that the economic market that once was electricity was crushed by (1) the creation of monopoly utilities (which was a terrible idea), (2) over regulation as a substitute for the loss of competition (which was a misguided idea), and (3) attempts to restructure it back into a market (which while helping with some problems created a whole host of new problems).

Our recognition that electricity operates according to the same economic principles as plenty of other markets is why we created "Consumer Regulated Electricity" (CRE). CRE proposes to side-step the existing industry, create new utilities operating independently, and allow a true competitive market to flourish. And oh by the way, by side-stepping the existing industry, CRE will also be able to deliver new supplies of electricity in timescales unachievable by the existing industry with innovation seen only in, well, innovative industries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/25/data-centers-electricity-prices-rise/