Sponsors (43)
The bill shifts more of the immediate cost and risk of grid upgrades onto very large customers to protect utilities and broad ratepayers, improving utility financial stability but raising upfront costs for large users and creating potential competitiveness, regulatory, and distributional concerns.
Utilities and other ratepayers face fewer stranded costs because very large customers (≥100 MW) must cover incremental grid upgrade costs, reducing the risk that those costs are socialized across all customers.
Electric utilities gain greater financial protection and predictability because utilities must obtain customer financial assurances before building upgrades, lowering utility financial risk and credit exposure.
States that have already adopted comparable rules are exempted from new federal timelines, preserving existing state regulatory processes and avoiding duplicative proceedings for those jurisdictions.
Very large nonresidential customers (≥100 MW) face higher upfront costs or required deposits to secure grid upgrades, increasing project costs and financial barriers to locating or expanding in affected areas.
Recovering upgrade costs from specific customers could raise local electricity prices or reduce site competitiveness for industrial locations, potentially deterring investment and jobs in affected communities.
Requiring states and nonregulated utilities to act within 1–2 years may strain regulatory resources, accelerate contentious proceedings, and increase legal and administrative costs for regulators and utilities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires large-load customers (≥100 MW at a site) to cover the full incremental cost of any grid upgrades needed to serve them and requires utilities to secure financial assurances before building upgrades.
Requires utilities and states to adopt a federal standard that makes "large-load customers" pay the full incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades needed to serve their load. Utilities must secure financial assurances or upfront contributions from those large customers before building upgrades, and states/nonregulated utilities must begin and finish reviews of the standard within set timelines unless they already have comparable rules. Defines "large-load customer" as a single site or campus non-residential customer requesting or contracting for 100 MW or more peak demand. The law sets 1- and 2-year deadlines for state regulated and nonregulated utilities to consider and complete determinations implementing the new federal standard, with limited exceptions for prior state action, and clarifies applicability to pending proceedings referencing the new standard.
Official title: To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 18, 2026 by Gabe Evans · Last progress September 17, 2026