Bill > AB1577

This bill requires large data centers, defined as facilities with an electrical capacity of 10 megawatts or more that house computing infrastructure for processing and storing electronic data, to report detailed operational and energy-related information to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (the state's primary energy policy and planning agency) and local planning authorities. Under the legislation, data center owners or operators must submit facility specifications, energy consumption metrics, power usage effectiveness (a standard metric measuring how efficiently a data center uses energy for computing compared to cooling and other overhead), on-site power generation details, and cooling methods to the Energy Commission. Additionally, when applying for local land use permits, operators must provide local agencies with estimates of expected annual energy use, on-site electricity generation, and anticipated sound levels to assist with community and infrastructure planning. The bill directs the Energy Commission to incorporate data center electrical load trends into its biennial Integrated Energy Policy Report beginning in 2029, publish the submitted data annually in an anonymized and aggregated format, and establish safeguards to protect proprietary business information, trade secrets, and customer data from public disclosure, while exempting certain publicly funded, research, public safety, national security, and telecommunications facilities from these requirements.