On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity. “Beginning July 1
st
, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically — by 25%,
increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year
. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead,” a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).
Henrico County is a community of more than 350,000 people in eastern Virginia just outside of Richmond. It also hosts 37 data centers and there are
plans to build 17 more
, including plans to convert hundreds of acres of Civil War battlefields into data centers. Thanks to its proximity to DC and vast amounts of land, Henrico County became a data center hub
seemingly overnight
and its services clients
big and small
. Meta
built a data center
there in 2017.
