House Passes Bill to Shield Consumers From Data Center Electricity Costs

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting American households and small businesses from potentially higher electricity costs associated with large data centers, Mike Bebernes reported for Yahoo Tech.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Ratepayer Protection Act in a 417-3 bipartisan vote aimed at addressing electricity infrastructure costs associated with large data centers.

The Ratepayer Protection Act passed by a 417-3 vote.

The legislation would require state public utility commissions to consider standards under which large-load data centers cover the incremental costs of electricity generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure needed to serve them.

“American families and small businesses” should not be left paying for the energy infrastructure required by new data centers, Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., one of the bill's sponsors, said ahead of the vote.

The legislation now moves to the Senate. A Senate version of the Ratepayer Protection Act, S. 5028, was introduced by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, in July.

The Senate bill was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The House legislation would establish a federal standard under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act requiring state regulators to consider how large-load customers should recover the full incremental costs associated with upgrades needed to serve them.

The measure does not itself establish the electricity rates charged to data centers.

States and their public utility commissions retain authority over electricity rates. The bill instead seeks to influence how regulators account for the additional infrastructure costs associated with large data centers.