Sponsors (8)
The bill shifts more of the direct cost and responsibility for grid impacts from concentrated data center loads onto the data centers themselves and strengthens planning tools and environmental incentives—improving fairness and grid reliability for many customers—while raising project costs, regulatory complexity, and the risk of delayed investment or cost pass‑throughs that could raise prices or harm some local economies.
Taxpayers, state governments, and other utility customers pay less for grid upgrades because large data centers will be charged site-specific interconnection and transmission upgrade costs instead of being cross-subsidized by other ratepayers.
Utilities, grid operators, and communities get more reliable planning and operation because the bill gives operators tools (queue management, higher study deposits, staged in‑service, better load forecasting, and load‑flex mechanisms) to manage concentrated data center demand and deter speculative projects.
Local communities and utility service areas face lower local pollution and more low‑carbon power because projects that bring lifetime low/no‑carbon generation or fund zero‑emission technologies are prioritized, encouraging cleaner local energy and reducing diesel backup pollution risks.
Small businesses, cloud customers, and end consumers may face higher prices because data centers will face substantial new up‑front and ongoing site‑specific charges (deposits, CIAC, deliverable generation costs, demand charges) that can be passed through to customers.
Local governments, workers, and regional economies may lose or delay jobs and tax revenue because interconnection delays, denials, staged in‑service requirements, and longer contractual commitments can slow or deter data center investment and full ramp‑up.
State regulators, utilities, and developers face increased regulatory complexity, administrative costs, and potential legal disputes because the bill creates new site‑specific charging rules, tariff filing deadlines, deliverability/temporal matching requirements, and potentially new rate classes.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires separate data‑center interconnection queues, makes data centers pay local upgrade costs, pushes states to create data‑center rate classes, and funds technical help.
Introduced January 15, 2026 by Christopher Van Hollen · Last progress January 15, 2026
Requires FERC and regional grid operators to treat large data‑center interconnections as a distinct category: create data‑center load queues, allocate local transmission upgrade costs to data centers, and set standards that prioritize data centers that pay for low‑ or no‑carbon power and meet labor standards. Directs states to consider dedicated rate classes so non‑data‑center customers do not shoulder upgrade costs, and funds technical assistance and improved forecasting and transparency for interconnection requests.