Bill > HB403

This bill adds a new section to Alabama law that clarifies how the Public Service Commission (PSC), the state agency that regulates utilities, should review contracts between electric utilities and large data centers. Specifically, it defines "incremental costs of retail electric service" as the extra expenses a utility incurs to provide electricity to a large data center customer, such as fuel and taxes, that wouldn't exist without that customer's contract. A "large load data center" is defined as a customer requiring at least 150 megawatts of electricity and meeting the state's definition of a data processing center. The bill states that a contract with such a customer is in the public interest if the PSC determines that the contract's pricing and "terms and conditions" (which cover aspects like contract length, upfront payments, and security) will allow the utility to recover these incremental costs from the data center and also benefit all other customers by potentially lowering their costs or increasing the efficiency of the utility's power system. This new law is set to take effect on October 1, 2026.

Transportation and Infrastructure

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