S. 3682 — Power for the People Act of 2026

This section states the sense of Congress that (1) households and businesses subsidize data center development through rising energy bills; (2) data centers will more than double electricity consumption to 6.7-12% of total demand by 2028, increasing ratepayer costs; (3) ratepayers should not bear financial risks of new infrastructure for data centers; (4) data center owners and operators must pay resulting energy costs; (5) data center energy demands threaten grid reliability, affordability, and interstate commerce, necessitating increased Federal Power Commission oversight; (6) data centers raise transmission costs even if not directly connected to transmission facilities; (7) solutions must minimize environmental impacts while creating jobs; (8) the Commission has authority under Federal Power Act sections 205, 206, and 215 (16 U.S.C. 824d, 824e, 824o) to require grid operators to create data center "load queues" for upgrades and load flexibility; (9) such load queues by grid operators are not unduly discriminatory; and (10) states should broadly adopt data center-specific rate classes to protect ratepayers.

This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act, including “Commission” (i.e., the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission); “covered interconnection entity” (i.e., an independent system operator, regional transmission organization, or transmitting utility responsible for managing data center load interconnection requests); “data center” (i.e., a facility or group of facilities with the same owner in the same utility area that primarily hosts information systems, has energy demand greater than 50 megawatts, and is not federally owned); “data center load queue”; “data center owner or operator”; “facility used to mine cryptocurrency”; “labor organization”; “labor peace agreement”; “load growth”; “load interconnection request”; “organic load growth” (i.e., load growth from economic or population increases, excluding data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities); “project labor agreement”; “qualifying battery energy storage system” (i.e., a utility-scale system paid for by a data center owner or operator); and “qualifying load flexibility agreement” (i.e., an agreement allowing data center load interruptions before other users when needed for grid protection).

This section directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue, within 180 days of enactment, a rule requiring covered interconnection entities to establish data center load queues that prioritize interconnection for data centers offsetting grid demand through specified strategies—while allowing delays or denials if interconnection would harm grid reliability, resource adequacy, or non-data center electricity affordability—and to ensure compliance within one year of the rule's issuance. The required strategies are (1) bringing new, dedicated low- or no-carbon supply resources matching the data center's load profile (or gaps not covered by batteries, virtual power plants, or load flexibility), deliverable to the site, and maintained for the data center's lifetime; (2) incorporating low- or no-carbon backup generation excluding diesel; (3) paying prevailing wages (per Davis-Bacon standards) and using registered apprentices in construction of the data center and new resources; and (4) requiring labor peace agreements for resource operations and maintenance. The section further directs FERC to set standards for qualifying load flexibility agreements that reduce ratepayer costs and enable implementation; establishes a sliding-scale queue priority favoring lower-carbon generation; deems data centers using pre-hire collective bargaining agreements under NLRA §8(e)-(f) (29 U.S.C. 158(e)-(f)) or project labor agreements compliant with wage and apprenticeship requirements; and grants the Secretary of Labor enforcement authority under specified statutes.

This section directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not later than 120 days after enactment, to require each public utility to file tariff amendments under FPA §205 that (1) allocate to each interconnecting data center the costs of local transmission upgrades needed solely due to the data center, and (2) charge data centers transmission rates for their rate class reflecting embedded costs of the integrated grid, excluding those local upgrade costs. (Thus, data centers—which often require significant grid upgrades due to high electricity demand—bear direct responsibility for their incremental local costs while contributing to system-wide embedded costs.)

This section establishes a new ratemaking standard under section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), designated as paragraph (22), requiring each state with at least one data center (or proposed data center) to consider (1) establishing a data center-specific rate class to ensure data center owners or operators cover the full cost of generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades and (2) incorporating requirements such as minimum demand charges based on requested peak demand, extended minimum utility contract lengths, increased up-front interconnection study costs or collateral, permissible multiyear load ramp periods (subject to grid reliability), clean transition tariffs for zero-emissions technologies, and contribution in aid of construction (CIAC). (As background, PURPA section 111 requires each state regulatory authority—for utilities subject to its ratemaking authority—and each nonregulated electric utility to consider listed standards and determine whether it is appropriate to implement them consistent with state law.) This section further requires commencement of consideration (or hearing scheduling) not later than one year after enactment and completion of the determination not later than two years after enactment; exempts electric utilities in states that, before enactment, implemented, considered in a proceeding, or had a legislature vote on the standard (or comparable standard); and makes conforming changes to PURPA compliance deadlines under sections 112(c) and 124.

This section directs the Secretary to establish, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, a program to provide grants and technical assistance to State regulatory authorities and nonregulated electric utilities—considering the standard established by 16 U.S.C. 2621(d)(22)—to assist in creating rate classes that ensure costs relating to data center energy demands, including generation, transmission, and distribution network upgrades, are not borne or subsidized by non-data center customers. The section authorizes appropriations of such sums as are necessary to carry out the program.

This section directs the Secretary of Energy, not later than 180 days after enactment, to establish a program providing technical assistance to covered interconnection entities for forecasting long-term load projections, particularly data center load interconnection requests; authorizes such sums as necessary for this purpose. It further directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not later than 180 days after enactment, to establish transparency and disclosure requirements for data center load interconnection requests at both transmission and distribution levels, including new information-sharing mandates for utilities and covered interconnection entities to reduce duplicative and speculative requests that impede accurate forecasting.