House bill to shift grid upgrade costs to data centers heads toward a vote
The Ratepayer Protection Act cleared committee 52-0 before Wednesday's House vote on shifting grid costs to data centers
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The US House took up the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill that would require state utility regulators to consider whether large electricity users, including data centers, should pay for the power infrastructure needed to serve them, Reuters reported via KFGO.
The bill, introduced by Representative Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, and Representative Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican, has bipartisan backing, an uncommon point of agreement in Congress as lawmakers weigh economic growth, grid reliability and consumer costs ahead of the midterm elections, according to Reuters.
The measure advanced out of committee by a vote of 52-0, according to the CRE Finance Council. Lawmakers narrowed its scope ahead of that vote so it applies only to data centers, after an earlier draft targeted any power user above 100 megawatts. As drafted, it would direct state regulatory commissions to weigh a large-load standard, so that a large-load customer's rate recovers the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission or distribution upgrade needed to serve it, backed by financial assurances to cover those upgrades. The CRE Finance Council said the bill largely mirrors President Trump's Rate Payer Protection Pledge. The environmental group Food & Water Watch has also weighed in on the bill, Reuters reported, without detailing its position.
The bill raises the cost of the AI buildout for hyperscalers and colocation operators at a time when capital spending on data center campuses is already stretching balance sheets. Shifting grid upgrade costs onto developers rather than spreading them across all ratepayers would squeeze project economics for the companies driving that spending. That makes the measure bearish for data center operators and for utility partners that had counted on socializing infrastructure costs, though utilities themselves may view it as neutral to mildly positive, since it shields their broader customer base from rate increases.