Oklahoma’s only remaining bill targeting data centers was overwhelmingly passed in the state House Monday, sending the measure to the Senate.
The House voted 92-2 in support of HB2992 by Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, a bill to require large load data centers to pay their portion of infrastructure costs and to prevent the costs from being passed on to other ratepayers.
Its formal title is the Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act.
“—what this is going to do is basically make sure that the data centers pay for their portion of infrastructure costs. So for instance, if there’s a new power facility going in, and let’s say 80% of that facility is dedicated to a data center, 20% is dedicated to residential, industrial, the data center will pay for 80% of their infrastructure costs, which would be all 100% of their costs that they brought to the grid,” said Rep. Boles in explaining his bill to House members.
He said the bill will make the Corporation Commission ensure that utility companies do not pass on the cost to ratepayers outside of the data centers. It would do the same for Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority cities, rural electric cooperatives, Grand River Dam Authority cities, municipalities, their elected board or city council that oversees their rates.
“So no matter where you live in Oklahoma, this bill should protect rate payers from data center infrastructure costs being passed on to those rate payers,” added Rep. Boles.
He said data centers are among the “biggest concerns” he gets when he talks to constituents who express worries that the large load center costs will be passed along to ratepayers.
“So, we’re talking a whole different level than what we’ve ever seen in the state history of power and so we’re trying to create a class to handle that significant power that we’ve never seen in the state history and really American history and that’s the biggest cost because the infrastructure requirements for these facilities are significant and they’re going to cost a lot of money and we just want to make sure that that infrastructure cost, we’re talking in the billions, don’t get passed on to all of our rate payers.”
In a social post over the weekend, Rep. Clay Staires R-Avant, who is a co-author of the measure, called it the “ONLY Data Center bill out of nine House and Senate Bills to make it out of Committee.”
He authored HB4219 but withdrew it when HB2992 was passed in committee.
Another data center bill, SB1488 by Sen. Kendal Sacchieri, R-Blanchard, would have created a moratorium on construction of data centers in the state until the fall of 2029.
“I regret the bill did not get a hearing in committee, so it is dead for the year most likely,” she explained to OK Energy Today. The bill would have ordered a Corporation Commission study on the potential impacts that data centers might have on the state, including the water supply of aquifers, streams, lake or wastewater plants. A fiscal impact study estimated the cost of nearly $400,000 for the hiring of an outside consultant.