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The bill protects consumers from direct rate increases for smart‑grid deployment but shifts costs and regulatory friction onto utilities and state regulators, risking slower grid modernization and possible impacts on reliability.
Most electricity customers (ratepayers and households) will not be charged directly for smart‑grid deployment costs because utilities are barred from recovering those costs from rates, reducing the chance of higher electricity bills.
States that have already adopted comparable smart‑grid rules are exempted, avoiding duplicate regulatory reviews and easing compliance for utilities in those states.
Electric utilities (and their shareholders) must absorb smart‑grid deployment costs, which could strain utility finances and lead to reduced maintenance or capital spending, harming service reliability and long‑term system health.
The ban on cost recovery could slow or halt smart‑grid adoption, delaying grid modernization benefits such as outage prevention, efficiency gains, and easier integration of renewables.
The bill imposes 1–2 year deadlines on state regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider the rule, creating administrative burden and increasing the risk of litigation during review processes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits electric utilities from recovering any smart grid deployment costs from ratepayers and sets 1- and 2-year deadlines for state and nonregulated utility proceedings, with a limited 3-year prior-action exemption.
Introduced February 7, 2025 by Jefferson Van Drew · Last progress February 7, 2025
Prohibits electric utilities from recovering any capital, operating, or other costs of deploying smart grid systems from ratepayers, and requires state regulators and nonregulated utilities to start and finish proceedings to consider that prohibition within set deadlines (begin within 1 year, complete within 2 years). Provides a limited exemption for utilities in States that already implemented, considered, or had legislative action on comparable standards within the prior three years, and clarifies how the effective date language applies to the new prohibition.