The Nebraska legislature passed two bills designed to attract large data center development projects to the state for economic-development benefits on Thursday, according to the legislature’s website.

The legislation was passed as unnamed developers consider sites in Nebraska to build two data centers, codenamed Project Edge and Project Photon. It is unclear whether the projects are by one company or by two separate ones, as the names of the people behind the projects have been kept secret by the state government.

One of the bills will provide tax incentives for large data center projects and the other allows for below-market energy rates. Both pieces of legislation have been presented to governor Dave Heineman for signing on Thursday.

The state rushed to push the new rules through the legislative process in what appeared to be an effort to convince the developers of Project Edge – eventually expected to cost about US$1.2bn – to settle on Nebraska as the state to build it in.

The Omaha World-Herald quoted Heineman in February saying investment in Project Edge would be “extraordinary”, indicating the governor’s support of the incentive bills.

“We're one of the finalists [among other states the company behind Project Edge is looking at], and I think we have an outstanding opportunity to have this occur,” Heinman said, according to the World-Herald.

The new tax incentives, if approved by the governor, will give sales- and use-tax refunds, property tax exemptions and refunds on IT hardware and software purchases to developers of data centers that cost $200m or more and create at least 30 permanent jobs.

The energy bill will enable publicly owned utilities to leverage excess electricity they generate to negotiate lower rates for data center customers.