Congress blocks utilities from charging you for data-center power upgrades

What it does

This bill amends federal utility law to prohibit investor-owned electric utilities from passing the costs of serving large data centers (those using more than 75 megawatts of power) to residential and small business customers through their electric rates. Instead, data centers must bear their own infrastructure costs. States have one year to adopt this standard, and utilities claiming data centers will lower consumer bills must now prove it annually.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to prevent cost-shifting from data centers to residential ratepayers by establishing a new PURPA standard. It is fundamentally a consumer protection measure within utility regulation, not a data-center subsidy or deregulation.

What the text implies

• Data centers may respond by negotiating direct power purchase agreements with utilities or seeking alternative energy sources, potentially fragmenting the grid and reducing cross-subsidies that historically benefited all customers.
• States with weak regulatory capacity may struggle to enforce the standard or verify data-center claims about consumer savings, creating enforcement gaps.
• The bill's requirement that data centers prove claimed consumer savings may expose false marketing claims but also creates administrative burden on state regulators.
• Large data centers may relocate to states with weaker enforcement or may push for exemptions, creating a regulatory patchwork across states.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Ordinary residential and small business customers are shielded from subsidizing the infrastructure costs of large data centers, which would otherwise be spread across all ratepayers. The bill prevents cost-shifting from a capital-intensive, profitable industry to households and small firms with no ability to negotiate.

Who stands to gain

• residential electric consumers
• small business electric consumers

Named in the bill

investor-owned electric utilities, data centers (>75 MW peak demand), State regulatory authorities, Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA)

Where it stands

2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.

• Jul 13, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Jul 13, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.