OKLAHOMA CITY - Data center energy consumption in the U.S. accounted for 4% of the country’s overall energy usage in 2024, and that rate is rising, information from the Pew Research Center shows.
Growth in data center energy usage is expected to double by 2030 and will require expanded infrastructure to meet the need. State Rep. Brad Boles has filed legislation to ensure that residential customers are not left ‘holding the bag’ for that expansion.
The Marlow Republican said his Brad legislation would require the data centers themselves to pay for their increased energy consumption.
“With more than a dozen potential new data centers planning to locate in Oklahoma that we are aware of at this point, we have to make sure everyday Oklahomans are not stuck paying the price of the electricity use due to these new data centers,” Boles said in a press release.
House Bill 2992, known as the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026, is a “shell” bill; it does not have yet have finalized language. Nevertheless, the idea, Boles said, is that the proposed law would require data centers to pay for the infrastructure costs associated with their heightened energy demands.
Residents and businesses in other states without protections, such as largeload tariffs, have experienced significant increases to their energy costs. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the Pennsylvania Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, which serves 13 mid-Atlantic and midwestem states, increased prices due to the energy demands of data centers. Due to this increase, some residents have seen their energy bills increase by $16 to $18 per month.
A typical data center is a voracious consumer of electricity.
Data centers house servers that allow companies to provide digital services such as email, streaming, crypto mining, and generative artificial intelligence chatbots. Data centers have been expanding rapidly to support the demand for AI services, which generally require hyperscale data centers.
Hyperscale data centers are large warehouse facilities that store advanced servers, and, according to the Pew Research Center, one Al-focused hyperscale center annually consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households.
Hyperscale facilities host 5,000 servers or more. Some centers are much larger and operate on a campus with multiple warehouse-sized buildings full of servers. A majority of the energy used by these centers goes towards powering servers.
Cooling servers at the data center generally take the next largest amount of energy, though the amount of energy can range drastically depending on the efficiency of the cooling system.
Data centers also utilize water primarily for cooling servers through various systems that absorb and dissipate heat.
Growth in data centers, Boles said, requires better ways to protect the consumer.
“As these facilities grow, we in the Legislature must put guardrails in place so Oklahomans are not the ones footing the bill for new substations, transmission lines and other infrastructure upgrades,” he said.
Boles said his legislation would ensures fairness “and keep utility rates for Oklahoma ratepayers from climbing because of the unprecedented, increased demand of new electrical generation needed due to the AI data centers.”
Oklahoma lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Feb. 2.