Does Florida law prevent utility bill hikes from data centers?

Florida law doesn’t guarantee residents won’t pay higher utility bills due to the presence of data centers –– the large buildings that house servers and hardware to power artificial intelligence and other online services.

During an Aug. 17 campaign rally, Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds said Floridians won’t see their utility bills go up from data centers being built in the state.

SB 484 establishes minimum costs that qualifying large-load customers, such as data centers, must pay. Those minimum requirements must “reasonably ensure” the cost isn’t shifted onto households and businesses.

But while it requires those companies to pay for their full cost of operations, the language in the bill does not guarantee that Floridians will never see increased utility bills.

The construction of data centers have sparked controversy in Florida. Some residents have raised concerns about their high electricity and water demands.