A bill that would require electric public utilities in New Jersey to develop and submit to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) a tariff for certain data centers advanced in the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee today.
Bill A-796 (Bailey, D-3) applies to data centers that have a maximum monthly demand of at least 100 megawatts.
Among the provisions, the bill requires the tariff to:
- Ensure that non-data center ratepayers are protected from any increased costs that result from increased electricity demand caused by data centers;
- Incentivize data centers to develop and utilize methods to increase energy efficiency through the use of technologies that capture and utilize the heat produced by the data center.
- Require electric public utilities to apply the tariff to each data center located in their service area one year after the bill’s enactment.
NJBIA initially opposed the bill because it allowed facilities to be aggregated based on common ownership, control, or other criteria — even if those facilities operate separately and individually fall well below the 100-megawatt threshold.
“For example, a company could have had 10 facilities across New Jersey, each using between eight and 10 megawatts per month,” said NJBIA Policy Research Analyst Jack Ramirez. “Individually, none of those facilities would qualify as a ‘large load’ customer.
The bill, however, was amended to clarify that only data centers with a true 100 megawatt-per-month demand are included.
NJBIA is now neutral on the bill.
“The amended changes help clarify the policy and better protect ratepayers while still allowing innovation and business growth to move forward,” Ramirez said.
