Bill > HB1834

This bill, known as the Data Center Act, establishes regulations for commercial data centers in Pennsylvania, imposing new duties on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the Department of Human Services, and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority. Key provisions include requiring data centers with a peak demand of 25 megawatts or greater to contribute to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) through annual payments, establishing a Data Center Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Enhancement Account to fund supplemental LIHEAP programs including a summer cooling component, and creating the Pennsylvania Energy Independence Account to finance new clean energy projects. The bill also mandates that energy supplied to data centers must include a percentage of electricity from "clean firm energy" resources, which are defined as dispatchable or firm energy sources like nuclear, hydro, geothermal, fuel cells, solar (with storage), wind (with storage), clean hydrogen, and battery storage systems that represent new capacity. Furthermore, it outlines requirements for contract filing and review by the PUC to ensure data center operations do not negatively impact existing customers' electric bill affordability or service reliability, and it establishes standards for disclosure, backup generation, curtailment, and expedited interconnection for data centers that invest in incremental clean firm energy resources.