Did Oklahoma recently pass a law that requires any new data center using 75 or more megawatts to pay their own infrastructure costs and give 60 days notice before buying land?

House Bill 2992, signed on May 11, requires large-load customers to fund their own infrastructure costs and to notify government entities and adjacent landowners within 60 days of purchasing land. 

Governing bodies reviewing electric supplier rates are to ensure that other customers are protected from paying rates directly caused by service to large-load customers, defined as new data centers, cryptocurrency mining operations, and artificial intelligence computing facilities with capacities of 75 megawatts or more. 

Under the new law, electric suppliers are to create and maintain separate terms, conditions, and tariffs for large load customers, including “credit reimbursements, and any other measures necessary to ensure that such customers reimburse the electric supplier for all costs fairly allocated to them.” 

Oklahoma has 12 planned data centers that would add 2,723 MW of capacity to its five operating sites with a cumulative capacity of 18 MW.