Fortune reports that nearly 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents could lose most of their electricity supply after Nevada utility NV Energy announced it will stop providing power to Liberty Utilities by May 2027. The move comes as power demand from AI data centers in northern Nevada surges, with companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft expanding operations in the region.
Liberty Utilities currently receives about 75% of its electricity from NV Energy, and replacing that supply could cost hundreds of millions of dollars due to the region’s isolated grid connections. Data centers already consume roughly 22% of Nevada’s electricity, a figure projected to rise sharply by 2030, raising broader concerns about how the AI boom is reshaping power infrastructure and prioritization across the western US.