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Use of Electricity By Data Centers Law Enacted
LD 912 is An Act To Limit The Amount Of Electricity That May Be Provided To Data Centers On A Certain Commercial Or Industrial Sites. The bill as amended revises an existing statutory exception to the definition of “transmission and distribution utility” for commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers on a C&I site to provide that an entity that otherwise would qualify for the exception must be located within the control area of the New England independent system operator in a municipality north of the Town of Chester and may not use more than 25% of its nameplate capacity to serve data centers located on the commercial or industrial site.
This was an emergency bill that was signed May 23, 2025 and therefore took effect immediately.
As background, on June 13, 2025 the Senate adopted favorable majority report from Joint Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee, adopted Committee amendment, and passed bill to be engrossed as amended. The following day the House adopted favorable majority report from Joint Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee, adopted Committee amendment, and passed bill to be engrossed as amended.
Some key aspects of the new law:
- Imposes limits the amount of electricity generation service providers can supply to data centers that are capped at 25% of their total electricity sales within Maine annually.
- Data centers that generate their own power and are located adjacent to their generation facility are exempt from 25% limit.
- Generation service providers are required to report quarterly to the Maine Public Utilities Commission on electricity supplied to data centers and their total sales.
- The Public Utilities Commission is empowered to implement the law and penalize providers who exceed the limit.
