The California Legislature passed AB 1577, which would require large data centers to report electricity consumption and other operating information to the California Energy Commission and provide projected energy-demand information when applying for certain local permits.
The bill is intended to give state and local officials more information for assessing the effects of data-center development as artificial intelligence and cloud computing lead to projections of rapidly increasing electricity demand.
AB 1577 would require owners or operators of data centers with at least 10 megawatts of electrical capacity to report specified operating information to the CEC at least annually. The data generally would have to be disaggregated by month and would include maximum electrical load, total energy consumption, power usage effectiveness, participation in demand-flexibility programs, onsite electricity generation and fuel consumed by onsite generators or other fuel-based energy systems.
Notably, the final version of the bill does not require reporting of water consumption or water usage effectiveness.
The CEC would publish the reported information annually in anonymized, aggregated form. Beginning with its 2029 Integrated Energy Policy Report, the CEC would also assess data-center electricity-load trends, including projected demand, potential net peak loads and possible measures to limit effects on grid capacity, reliability and greenhouse-gas emissions.
The legislation would impose additional disclosure requirements during the development process. When seeking a discretionary permit, entitlement, or land-use authorization, a data-center owner or operator would have to give the applicable local agency estimates of the facility’s annual electricity consumption, onsite electricity generation and operational sound levels. Local agencies could then use the information for land-use and infrastructure planning, energy-supply assessments and environmental reviews.
The Senate passed AB 1577 by a 29–10 vote on August 26. The Assembly concurred in Senate amendments by a 58–11 vote on August 27. The bill now waits for signature by Governor Gavin Newsom.