Data centers: power usage effectiveness: cost shifts.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary does not provide specific details about penalties for non-compliance or the exact method and timeframe for submitting power usage effectiveness ratios.

Data Centers: Energy Reporting and Efficiency Standards

AB-222 requires data center developers to report energy usage, mandates the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to include trends in its reports every two years, and limits cost shifts for new or altered data centers.

What This Bill Does

• Requires data center developers to estimate and publish on their websites the total energy used to develop and operate their models annually.
• Directs the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to include energy consumption trends of data centers in its reports every two years.
• Establishes a process for data center owners to submit power usage effectiveness ratios to the commission twice a year.
• Requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to ensure that costs related to new or altered data centers are just and reasonable, minimizing cost shifts to non-benefiting ratepayers.

Who It Names or Affects

• Data center developers who must report energy usage.
• The State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission which will include trends in its reports.
• Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that regulates public utilities including electrical corporations.

Terms To Know

Power Usage Effectiveness Ratio

A measure of how efficiently a data center uses energy, comparing the total energy used by the data center to the energy actually used for computing purposes.

Covered Model

An artificial intelligence system or service that requires reporting on its development and operation energy usage.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the new requirements.
• It is unclear how the Public Utilities Commission will enforce cost shifts minimization without additional regulations.
• The exact timeframe and method for data center owners to submit power usage effectiveness ratios are not detailed.

Official Summary Text

AB 222, as amended, Bauer-Kahan.
Data centers:
energy usage reporting and efficiency standards: electricity rates.
power usage effectiveness: cost shifts.
Existing law, on or before January 1, 2026, and before each time thereafter that a generative artificial intelligence system or service, as defined, or a substantial modification to a generative artificial intelligence system or service, released on or after January 1, 2022, is made available to Californians for use, regardless of whether the terms of that use include compensation, requires a developer of the system or service to post on the developer’s internet website documentation regarding the data used to train the generative artificial intelligence system or service.
This bill would require a developer, before using a covered model commercially or before making a covered model available for use by a third party, to estimate the total energy used to develop the covered model and the percentage of the total energy used to develop the
covered model that was generated in California. The bill would also require a developer, on or before February 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, to estimate the total energy used by the developer to operate the covered model during the previous calendar year and the percentage of the estimated total energy that was generated in California. The bill would require the developer to publish on its internet website that energy usage data, as provided.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to biennially adopt an integrated energy policy report, as specified, and to make the reports accessible to state, local, and federal entities and to the general public.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to include energy consumption trends for data centers in its integrated energy policy reports.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to establish a process for the owner of a data center, as defined, to submit the power usage effectiveness ratio, as defined, for the data center to the Energy Commission on a biannual basis, and require the owner of a data center to submit this information for the data center in the manner and timeframe specified by the Energy Commission. The bill would require the Energy Commission, as part of the 2027 edition of the integrated energy policy report, to include an assessment of electrical load trends for data centers, as provided.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the PUC to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
This bill would require the PUC to determine whether those costs and expenses in an application by an electrical corporation to recover costs and expenses arising from, or incurred as a result of, the construction of a new data center or a substantial alteration to an existing data center are just and reasonable. The bill would require the PUC to minimize the shifting of costs attributable to the construction or alteration of the data center to ratepayers who do not directly benefit from the data center.
This bill would require the PUC to assess the extent to which electrical corporation costs associated with new loads from data centers result in cost shifts to other electrical corporation customers, as provided, and require the PUC, on or before January 1, 2027, to submit the assessment to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature and to publicly post a copy of the assessment on the PUC’s internet website.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Current Bill Text

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