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Data Center Bill Awaits Governor’s Signature
On June 30, 2026 Data Center bill A796 passed both houses. See also identical Bill Number: S731.
The bill now awaits New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill’s signature or veto. Note that a similar bill had previously passed where the former Governor Murphey let the bill languish by not signing it – or “pocket vetoing” i
The most recent piece of legislation among other things requires electric public utilities to develop and apply special rules for certain data centers to shield non-data center customers from associated costs.
Specifically, the bill applies to new and existing data centers of at least 50 MW and aims to shield other ratepayers from costs associated with expanding data center and associated load growth challenges.
Also note that unlike other related data center bills this bill does not apply generally to all “large loads.”
“For the purpose of defining ‘large data center,’ the board shall aggregate the peak monthly energy demand of any data centers that are under common ownership or control, located on the same site or contiguous sites, or share substantial physical, operational, or interconnection infrastructure, and shall treat such aggregated facilities as a single large data center”
Under the bill, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities or BPU will be charged with overseeing and assigning costs associated with the data centers. The BPU will also be responsible for overseeing performance of demand response and efficiency programs and managing curtailment of data center customers during system emergencies in favor of residential and other customer class customers.
