SB 843

This bill establishes the following requirements related to data centers:

1. The Public Service Commission must ensure in its rate-making orders that no costs associated with the construction or extension of electric infrastructure that primarily serves a data center are allocated to or recovered from any other customer. Under current law, a public utility generally may not make a change to its rate schedules that constitutes an increase in rates, except by order of PSC after an investigation and opportunity for hearing.

2. Any renewable energy facility that primarily serves the load of a data center must be located at the site of the data center.

3. Water used by a data center for cooling purposes must be contained in a closed-loop cooling system, which is a system for removing heat from equipment and that relies on a fixed volume of water that is continually recycled.

4. The operator of a data center must annually report to the Department of Natural Resources the total amount of water used by the data center for the 12-month period prior to submitting the report.

5. A person may not operate a data center unless they file with DNR a bond or other security in an amount sufficient to cover the estimated cost of fulfilling any required reclamation.

6. If construction of a proposed data center is not completed, the owner must notify DNR and commence restoring the parcel to the condition that existed prior to any construction on the data center.