By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma ratepayers’ energy bills would be unaffected by new data centers under a bill advancing through the House.
Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, said his measure, House Bill 2992, will put safeguards and protections into state statute to ensure new data centers are paying for their own infrastructure and the energy they consume, rather than other consumers.
“We’re seeing historic growth in Oklahoma with our power generation requirements,” Boles said. “And a lot of this will be coming, most likely, from data centers.”
There are at least 30 data centers in Oklahoma that are currently operating, planned or under construction, according to reporting by News9.
Boles said it’s difficult to track the number of data centers in the state because the Oklahoma Corporation Commission does not regulate all utility companies, and therefore doesn’t track all existing infrastructure.
The bill would require new “large load customers,” such as data centers, cryptocurrency mining operations and artificial intelligence computing facilities, to establish their own contracts with electric suppliers.
Data centers have faced increasing criticism for using up water and power, adding to the already-existing strain on those resources.
“The scale of power generation capacity that they’re going to need is significantly higher than anything we’ve ever seen, and so that’s why it’s just such a huge power demand,” Boles said. “If that volume requires our utility companies to build infrastructure to support that volume, then the utility companies have to take these risks and to get money and build hundreds of millions of dollars of power generation.”
The measure would apply to all utility companies in Oklahoma, including those not regulated by the state, according to the bill language.
The Corporation Commission is also working on something similar to his measure, Boles said, but he still thinks it’s important to have the safeguards in state statute.
Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, asked how ratepayers will be protected if these data centers leave the state or go out of business.
Boles said large-load customers would be required to sign contracts to pay for their infrastructure costs over 10 years.
“Part of the bill also requires collateral from these companies so that if they go out of business before their contract is paid up for their infrastructure, that the utility companies will have collateral to collect from that group to ensure we don’t have any stranded costs that get passed on to the ratepayers of Oklahoma,” he said.
Existing large load customers would not be affected as they already have ongoing contracts, he said.
“We’re not trying to put punitive legislation forward on future economic development, I think this is a good balance,” Boles said.
Boles’ measure passed unanimously through the committee and is eligible to be heard on the House floor.
