SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 4307

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 22, 2025

      The Senate Environment and Energy Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 4307.

      This bill, as amended by the committee, would require each electric public utility in the State to develop and submit to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) a tariff for certain data centers.

      Specifically, the bill would apply to data centers that have a maximum monthly demand of at least 100 megawatts.  The bill would require the tariff to be designed to: (1) ensure that non-data center ratepayers are protected from any increased costs that result from increased electricity demand caused by data centers; and (2) incentivize data centers to develop and utilize methods to increase energy efficiency, including through the use of technologies that capture and utilize the heat produced by the data center.  Commencing one year after the bill's enactment, the bill would require electric public utilities to apply the tariff to each data center located in their service area.

      The bill would also provide that all rates, terms, and conditions established by the BPU for large load data centers would be required to reasonably protect ratepayers against increased costs resulting from new transmission, distribution, capacity, or energy rates resulting solely or primarily from serving large load data center customers.  The bill would authorize the BPU to impose certain requirements on electric public utilities in order to protect ratepayers, including ensuring that any new large load data customer provides adequate financial guarantees that they will take at least 85 percent of service they request for a period of not less than 10 years from when service commences.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments to the bill:

      (1) provide that the bill would apply to large load data centers, rather than all data centers, and define “large load data center”;

      (2) authorize the BPU to establish rates specific to large load data centers for use by an electric public utility in formulating the tariffs required under the bill;

      (3) add provisions, which authorize the BPU to impose certain requirements on electric public utilities in order to protect ratepayers against increased costs resulting from new transmission, distribution, capacity, or energy rates resulting from serving large load data center customers; and

      (4) update the synopsis of the bill.