It’s no secret that artificial intelligence data centres have been straining utility grids. But Silicon Valley has been relatively insulated from it all, thanks to high land and power prices that have pushed hyperscaler projects elsewhere.

The tech elite might soon get a taste of the power crunch. By May 2027, Liberty Utilities’ agreement with NV Energy will come to an end, leaving Lake Tahoe’s vacationland less than a year to find a new energy supplier. NV Energy's power will be redirected elsewhere in Nevada, where data centres have been booming.

Both Liberty Utilities and NV Energy say the wind-down has been long planned, but it’s hard to see how data centres don’t play a role. NV Energy alone has requests for more than 22 gigawatts of load, which is over 40 times what Lake Tahoe uses at its peak.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Energy markets are already squeezed by surging demand and tightened supplies made worse by the Trump administration’s decision to attack Iran. Lake Tahoe’s power lines share more connections with Nevada's grid than California's, meaning the community must find another power provider from within NV Energy's territory or elsewhere in the West.

Given that NV Energy has already prioritized data centres over the mountain town, it’s likely that Lake Tahoe residents — and second-home owners — will have to find another regional power producer. That won’t be easy either; a county commission recently approved a 40,000-acre data centre development in Utah that could consume up to 9 gigawatts of electricity when completed.