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HB 1002

Stalking; directing law enforcement agencies to provide certain notification to victims of stalking; effective date.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Micheal Bergstrom and 1 co-sponsor

Prohibits general rate recovery of data-center-specific costs; requires direct data-center charges or precise allocation, plus a temporary commission to study grid needs.

CR; Do Pass, amended by committee substitute Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee
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Bill Summary · HB 1002

HB 1002 — Rate Payer Protection Act (North Carolina) — Summary

Status (NC edition)
- Introduced in 2025; first reading recorded April 14, 2025 and referred to Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House.
- Primary sponsors (NC version): Representatives Harrison, Loftis, and Cervania.

Purpose
- To prevent electric utilities from passing through to general ratepayers costs that are incurred solely to serve large commercial data centers, and to create a Special Commission to study and plan data-center-related grid needs.

Key provisions

  1. New prohibition on cost recovery (adds G.S. § 62‑159.3)
  2. Defines “commercial data center” as a facility (or campus/array of facilities) primarily used to process/store/transmit data with a peak electrical demand of 100 megawatts (MW) or greater.
  3. Prohibits inclusion in utility rates or charges of any costs that:
    • Are related to providing electric service for commercial data centers, and
    • May be reasonably attributed (in whole or in part) to the electric demand of such data centers.

  4. Exception: utilities may recover these costs if they are charged exclusively to the data centers that cause them (i.e., billed directly to those facilities), or if charges are prorated based on electric demand. In short: the law blocks shifting data-center-specific grid or generation costs onto the general customer base.

  5. Creation of the Special Commission for Data Center Planning

  6. Establishes a temporary, 14‑member Commission to review grid and energy issues related to data center deployment and to make recommendations.

  7. Membership (total 14): Governor (3 appointments — two from investor‑owned utilities, one from an electric membership corporation); President Pro Tempore (1); Speaker of the House (2); House minority leader (1); Senate minority leader (1); two representatives from the NC Utilities Commission or their designees; Secretary of Commerce (2 or designees); Secretary of Health and Human Services (2 or designees).

  8. Duties include: reviewing grid and supply adequacy, recommending optimal data‑center locations (considering fiber, water, labor, latency), recommending grid capacity and generation/transmission/distribution expansions, investigating demand‑management approaches (variable load, on‑site generation, backup), examining future industry trends (e.g., AI impacts), surveying employers about capacity perceptions, and proposing legislation and budget recommendations.

  9. Powers: request information from state agencies, enter contracts, hold public hearings, subpoena attendance/testimony/records as needed for its work.

  10. Operations: quorum is a majority; the Commission must submit a written report to the Governor, legislative leaders, and the NC Utilities Commission within three months after its last meeting.

  11. Sunset: the Commission expires and is abolished on June 30, 2027.

Who is affected
- Ratepayers: residential and non‑data‑center commercial customers (protected from absorbing data‑center‑specific costs).
- Public utilities (investor‑owned and electric membership cooperatives): restricted in ability to include certain data-center‑related costs in general rates unless costs are directly allocated to data centers.
- Commercial data centers (≥100 MW peak demand): may face direct charges or cost allocation rather than cost shifting to the general customer base.
- State agencies and the NC Utilities Commission: participants in and recipients of the Commission’s recommendations.

Procedural/timeline notes
- The prohibition applies prospectively once the statute becomes law.
- The planning Commission is temporary (expires 6/30/2027) and must report its findings and recommendations shortly after completing its meetings (report due within three months of the Commission’s last meeting).
- As of the NC edition, the bill had completed first reading and been referred to the Rules committee (status subject to change as the measure advances).

Potential impacts (summary)
- Seeks to protect typical electric customers from bearing costs driven by concentrated, high‑demand data‑center developments.
- May shift cost recovery responsibilities to data centers (through direct contracts/charges) or require more precise demand‑based allocation.
- Commission recommendations could guide future siting, grid investments, and legislation to balance industry growth with grid reliability and equitable cost allocation.

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

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