Bill > HB1847

This bill clarifies that the owner or operator of a data center, defined as a facility with a peak electric demand of 50 megawatts or more primarily housing electronic and environmental control equipment (excluding state-owned facilities or those primarily for telecommunications services), must bear the full cost of any new or expanded electrical infrastructure required to support its operations. This means municipalities and electric utilities, which provide electricity, are prohibited from paying for or absorbing these infrastructure costs, which include things like transmission lines, substations, and related equipment. However, there are exceptions where an electric utility might allocate some costs to general system improvements if those improvements benefit existing customers and are not solely for the data center, or if they reimburse a data center for infrastructure costs according to their standard, non-discriminatory policies that don't lead to rate increases for existing customers. The bill also allows data centers to purchase electricity directly from independent power producers, which are entities that generate or store electricity, without those producers being classified as public utilities solely for that transaction.