{"id":11690,"date":"2025-10-22T20:37:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11690\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T20:37:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:37:19","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-consider-how-to-regulate-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11690\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers consider how to regulate data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WHTM)\u2013 State lawmakers are considering how to regulate data centers as the demand for them surges. Right now, there is no statewide regulatory framework for data centers and, concerns are being raised about the state\u2019s lack of oversight of these facilities.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania House Energy Committee listened to more than two hours of testimony from speakers representing the data center industry, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and other organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of responsibility being placed on local municipal elected officials right now,\u201d says committee chair Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1834, also known as the Data Center Act<\/a>, would allow the PA PUC to regulate commercial data centers.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, there would be requirements for renewable energy and for contributions to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program based on megawatts. The commission would also review data center contracts for their potential impact on the PJM Interconnection\u2019s grid system.<\/p>\n

\u201cPJM put out a four-hour report, and it identifies it, a 30 to 40 gigawatt shortfall would occur in 2030,\u201d says PA Public Utility Commission Chairman Stephen DeFrank.<\/p>\n

Close<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n

Watch for us in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Subscribe Now<\/p>\n

Concerns were raised during testimony about requirements seeming to be \u201cone size fits all\u201d when data centers vary in size and power consumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have significant concerns as well, provisions like mandatory curtailment,\u201d says Data Center Coalition VP of State Policy Dan Diorio. \u201cData centers can not simply shut off. They provide essential services and need to run 24\/7\u2026 centers will likely have to switch to backup generation that concerns customer agreements. You know, many customers are uncomfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diorio says data center construction has increased 69% year-over-year. He addressed concerns about water usage, stating that when a center uses a lot of water for cooling, it is actually using less electricity. In contrast, an air-based cooling system uses more electricity and less water.<\/p>\n

Many speakers and lawmakers agree that Pennsylvania has the energy, water, and workforce resources to potentially become a leader in the data center industry. However, concerns exist about how energy costs could be passed on to residents and local businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way to bring rates down is to increase generation,\u201d says PA Building and Construction Trades Council president Rob Bair. \u201cIt\u2019s also to incentivize our hyper-scalers and our data centers to bring their own onsite generation and incentivize to overbuild our generation to help alleviate our power problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

PA Chamber of Business and Industry director of Government Affairs Amy Brinton says Pennsylvania is highly sought after by data center developers due to vacant fields near substations and fiber optic networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cRedeveloping these underutilized properties presents a unique opportunity to generate long-term tax revenue that can support schools, libraries, and other community infrastructure,\u201d Brinton says. \u201cWith our abundant energy resources, robust infrastructure, skilled workforce, Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to become a leader in this technological evolution.<\/p>\n

After hours of testimony, Rep. Fiedler says she imagines there will be changes to the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure exactly what, but I do think that that was an important point\u2026 so there are hyperscale data centers and then there are other data centers that are much smaller in size,\u201d says Rep. Fiedler (D) \u2013 Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

After HB1834 is enacted, PUC has 90 days to establish temporary regulations on commercial data centers.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM)\u2013 State lawmakers are considering how to regulate data centers as the demand for them surges. Right now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2116,9117,9119,9118,28,30,9116,29,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-11690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-data-centers","9":"tag-elizabeth-fiedler","10":"tag-pa-public-utility-commission","11":"tag-pa-puc","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-house","15":"tag-pennsylvania-news","16":"tag-pjm-interconnection"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}