As demand for data centers accelerates, the plan will establish strong guardrails to protect communities, strengthen transparency, ensure these facilities invest in New Jersey’s energy infrastructure, and deliver good-paying jobs.

“Data centers are among the biggest drivers of energy costs, which I am working tirelessly to bring down. While many states are approaching this issue piecemeal, this is the first comprehensive plan to tackle it holistically. At the same time, New Jersey will take a thoughtful approach to harnessing investment, lowering costs for ratepayers, and leading on AI innovation,” said Governor Sherrill. “By establishing these guardrails, we will hold data centers accountable, ensure they contribute their fair share, and make sure our communities not only benefit from the AI innovation happening in our state, but have a real hand in shaping it.”

The comprehensive plan includes four key pillars:

• Establishing fair-share rules to ensure data centers bring new clean energy online and contribute to the grid infrastructure needed to support their growth, shifting costs away from residents and ratepayers rather than to them.
• Improving transparency starting with requiring reporting on energy and water use so the public has greater visibility into the impact of large-scale facilities.
• Developing strong statewide standards for Community Benefits Agreements and providing state resources to ensure municipalities can negotiate from positions of strength, ensuring data centers address impacts like light, noise, and pollution while making meaningful local investments.
• Delivering good paying jobs by ensuring these centers leverage local trades and pay prevailing wages.

This includes decisive action on Day One through Executive Orders No. 1 and 2 to freeze rate hikes and aggressively expand power generation to bring more affordable energy online for New Jersey families. Since then, Governor Sherrill and her Administration have approved six large-scale solar and battery storage projects, announced a historic expansion of community solar to 3,000 MW, and signed legislation to accelerate battery storage deployment and lift the 50-year moratorium on new nuclear energy.