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SB 466

Electric utilities; cost recovery, costs substantially related to serving data center customers.

2026 Regular Session Introduced by Richard Stuart

Virginia bill allowing electric utilities to recover data center-specific infrastructure and operational costs through customer rates rather than as regular business expenses.

Fiscal Impact Statement from State Corporation Commission (SB466)
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Bill Summary · SB 466

Legislative bill overview

SB 466 allows electric utilities in Virginia to recover costs associated with serving data center customers through rate-recovery mechanisms rather than absorbing them as business expenses. The bill specifically addresses infrastructure investments and operational expenses that utilities incur when providing power to data centers, which consume significantly more electricity than typical commercial customers.

Why is this important

Data centers are energy-intensive operations that require substantial grid infrastructure upgrades and reliability investments. How these costs are allocated—spread across all ratepayers versus recovered from data center customers directly—affects both electricity rates for ordinary consumers and the competitive positioning of Virginia's data center industry. This directly impacts whether data center growth subsidizes or is subsidized by other utility customers.

Potential points of contention

  • Cost allocation fairness: General ratepayers may oppose spreading data center infrastructure costs across all customers if they believe those costs should be borne entirely by the high-consumption data center sector
  • Economic competitiveness: Data center companies may argue that cost-recovery mechanisms increase their operating expenses and reduce Virginia's attractiveness compared to competing states with different regulatory approaches
  • Transparency and specificity: The bill's language regarding "substantially related" costs is broad and could allow utilities to classify various expenses as data-center-specific, requiring careful regulatory oversight to prevent cost-shifting

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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