"New Jersey families and small businesses already pay some of the highest electricity bills in the country, and large data centers are now the single fastest-growing source of new demand on the regional grid. They have created real increases in what New Jersey families pay. Today, Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a measure that delivers on her commitment to hold data centers accountable for the costs they create rather than allowing them to pass them on to New Jersey families.
The bill directs the Board of Public Utilities to establish a dedicated rate class for large data centers and requires that the costs of serving them — including any new generation, transmission, and distribution built on their behalf — be covered by those customers, not shifted onto households and Main Street businesses.

It protects ratepayers from the financial risk of speculative projects by requiring large data centers to financially guarantee at least 85 percent of the electricity supply they request over a ten-year term, and it rewards facilities that invest in energy efficiency, waste-heat reuse, and their own clean generation and storage. Just as importantly, it gives the grid new tools to limit data center electric demand rather than forcing residential customers to bear the burden of grid unreliability during emergencies.

S731 shows that economic growth and innovation do not have to come at the expense of hardworking families. We applaud all of those who drove this legislation forward and Governor Sherrill for taking action on this urgent issue.”