Bill > AB1577

This bill establishes new reporting and transparency requirements for large data centers—facilities with an electrical capacity of 10 megawatts or more that house computer servers and networking equipment to process and store electronic data—operating within California. Under the legislation, data center owners and operators must submit detailed operational and energy-related data to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (known simply as the Energy Commission), including facility size, total energy consumption, power usage effectiveness (a standard metric comparing total facility energy to the energy used strictly by IT equipment), and types of cooling refrigerants and onsite power generation used. Additionally, when applying for local land use permits or approvals, data centers must provide local agencies with estimates of their expected annual energy use, onsite power generation, and sound levels at property boundaries. To help the state plan for future energy demands and grid reliability, the Energy Commission must use this data to include an assessment of data center electrical load trends in its biennial integrated energy policy reports starting in 2029, while annually publishing the submitted facility data in an anonymized and aggregated format on its website. Finally, the bill protects sensitive proprietary data and customer privacy by explicitly prohibiting the Energy Commission and local agencies from publicly disclosing personally identifiable information or specific customer energy consumption data, while exempting certain public, research, national security, and utility facilities from these requirements.