A bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · July 16, 2026
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The Ratepayer Protection Act amends federal utility regulations to require large electricity consumers operating data centers and related computing facilities with peak demands of 100 megawatts or more to pay the full cost of all power infrastructure upgrades needed to serve their operations. The bill specifically targets large data center operators and other major computing facilities, requiring them to provide financial assurances or contributions upfront to cover generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades, and to continue paying for these costs even if they later terminate their contracts or stop purchasing power from the utility. State utility regulators and nonregulated electric utilities must begin reviewing whether to adopt this standard within one year of the bill's enactment and must complete their review and make a determination within two years. States that have already implemented this standard or held proceedings to consider it before the bill becomes law are exempt from the requirement. The legislation aims to ensure that large industrial electricity consumers bear the full cost of infrastructure they necessitate rather than having those costs spread to other ratepayers.
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