Florida Bills Would Give Data Centers Public Record Exemption for a Year and Shield Ratepayers from Energy Costs

With companies looking to build massive data centers across the country amid rapid growth in artificial intelligence and other technology, the Florida Senate on Tuesday started moving forward with a regulatory framework that would address key issues such as electricity and water use.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee unanimously approved a bill (SB 484) that sponsor Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs, said would “lay a foundation and put some parameters in place” for large data centers.

That includes requiring that the facilities pay costs of electric service — shielding residents and other businesses from getting hit with part of the tab — and putting in place water-permitting requirements. Data centers need large amounts of water for cooling systems.

Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, said he thinks data centers will be one of the most-important issues that lawmakers address this year. He also pointed to other states, such as Georgia, where large data centers have been built.

“If we don’t do this, others are going to get ahead of us,” Brodeur said.

The bill, in part, would require the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities, to develop what are known as “tariffs” and service requirements to “reasonably ensure that each large load customer bears its own full cost of service and that such cost is not shifted to the general body of ratepayers.”

That would include costs related to issues such as connecting to electric systems and increased power transmission and generation costs.

The commission has already faced the issue in a Florida Power & Light rate case last year and in a pending proposal by Duke Energy Florida. A settlement in the FPL rate case includes two sets of tariffs — which essentially detail types of rates — that are designed for such large energy users as data centers. One of those tariffs focuses on Southeast Florida’s Treasure Coast region, where FPL has significant infrastructure such as transmission lines.

Tiffany Cohen, FPL’s vice president of rate and regulatory strategy, told a House panel last month that the utility is trying to be “proactive” because it knows the large customers are coming.

“We’ve tried to flip this and say we know we have to build new generation to serve these (large) customers, and they should be the ones to pay for it,” Cohen said.

The Senate bill also would take a series of steps related to water use. For example, it would prevent water management districts from issuing permits for large data centers “if the proposed use of the water is harmful to the water resources of the area or is prohibited by the applicable local government zoning regulations and comprehensive plan.”

The bill says water management districts would issue permits if large data centers meet certain conditions, such as showing that they will “not interfere with any presently existing legal use of water.”

The bill also says local governments would maintain authority through comprehensive planning and land-development regulations in addressing large data centers.

Under the bill, state and local government officials could not enter non-disclosure agreements that would prevent disclosing information to the public about potential development of data centers.

But the Regulated Industries Committee on Tuesday also approved a separate bill (SB 1118), filed by Avila, that would create a public-records exemption that could keep information about potential large data centers confidential for up to a year. Companies could request such confidentiality before any formal application is filed with a local government.

–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida