A bill has been introduced in Wisconsin that aims to protect ratepayers from cost increases tied to data center expansion.

The legislation was introduced by Representative Shannon Zimmerman (Republican-River Falls) and Senator Romaine Quinn (Republican-Birchwood). The legislation includes several provisions, including prohibiting energy costs for data centers from being passed on to other customers and requiring any renewable energy used to power data center facilities to be located onsite.

“When new growth in data centers indicated significant new electricity demands, I became concerned that costs could be shifted onto Wisconsin families and small businesses,” Quinn said. “The bill I am introducing will prevent utility companies from passing their electricity costs on to any other customer. Wisconsin is open for business -- just not at the expense of ratepayers already here.”

In addition, the legislation proposes several provisions aimed at water usage within the sector. If passed, it would require data centers to utilize closed-loop water systems for cooling, require data center firms to annually report their water usage, and file a bond or security to cover the cost of any required reclamation.

Finally, the bill includes a provision that would require a data center where construction is not yet complete to restore the parcel of land to its condition prior to construction.

“With guardrails in place, Wisconsin can be a leader in the digital economy while protecting residents and ensuring responsible development,” Quinn added.

Wisconsin is the latest US state to see a bill proposed to protect ratepayers from bearing the financial burden of new transmission upgrades and power generation needed to accommodate new data centers.

Ohio was one of the first states to pass legislation to this effect, with Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approving a new rate class in July, that requires new data center customers in Ohio to pay for a portion of their energy requests, even if they use less, to cover the cost of the infrastructure required to bring electricity to those facilities.

Before this, in April, the Oregon House of Representatives passed a bill that granted regulators the authority to consider which customers are the primary beneficiaries of new infrastructure and allocate costs accordingly.

Following this, in September, Virginia’s main utility Dominion Energy proposed a new rate class for data centers, applying to utility customers who consume more than 25MW of energy and have a monthly load factor of more than 75 percent. If passed, it would require many, if not most, of the states' approximately 450 data centers within its coverage zone to be classified in the new customer class.