Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH)
Legislation would require state authorities consider enacting measures to ensure data centers pay their own way, instead of passing costs onto consumers
Yesterday Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) voted to pass the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act. The legislation would protect American families from the costs of energy and grid upgrades required for new data centers by requiring state public utility commissions consider strategies to make data centers pay their own way, instead of passing costs onto consumers.
“It’s just common sense: data centers and other large-load consumers shouldn’t be given a free pass to hike electric rates or other utility costs in our communities–they should pay their own way,” said Congressman Pappas. “This legislation provides state commissions with an easily adoptable framework to stop data center utility usage from impacting ratepayers and ease the financial burden on families right now. I’ll keep fighting to ensure New Hampshire’s towns and cities can decide what is best for their communities, and put the decision of whether data center construction can move forward in the hands of Granite Staters.”
Without proper safeguards, families and small businesses in communities where data center development occurs could see higher electricity bills at the end of every month. As states consider new data center development, this bill provides responsible solutions to ensure that the burden of energy and infrastructure costs associated with new data center development aren’t passed on to ratepayers.
Background:
Specifically, the legislation would amend Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) to require each state regulatory authority to consider establishing a large-load standard to provide that a rate charged, or related agreement entered into, by an electric utility for providing electric service to a large-load customer shall recover the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade necessary to serve the load of such customer and to provide for financial assurances to cover such upgrades.
The legislation would define large-load customers as non-residential electric consumers requesting electric energy for one or more facilities at a site or campus with peak demand of 100 megawatts or more.