Add Art 31 §§31-0101 - 31-0107, En Con L; add §1858-a, Pub Auth L; add Art 19 §§19-101 - 19-103, Energy L
Regulates energy consumption by data centers; requires annual disclosure reporting; prohibits incentives in fossil fuel power purchase agreements with utilities; requires the public service commission to create a community discount plan to account for increased energy costs for customers with host communities and make data center operators responsible for subsidizing energy costs within such host community.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9960
IN SENATE
December 13, 2024
___________
Introduced by Sen. GONZALEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, the public authori-
ties law and the energy law, in relation to regulation of energy
consumption by data centers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "New York
2 state sustainable data centers act".
3 § 2. Legislative intent and findings. The legislature finds that data
4 centers are significant energy and water consumers and contribute to air
5 and water pollution. The expansion and operation of data centers across
6 the state impairs New York state's ability to achieve the benchmarks set
7 out in the state's climate goals due to their significant use of energy
8 and water and significant emissions of greenhouse gases generated
9 through the power needs of their operation. Given the growing demand for
10 the construction of data centers, there is a critical need to improve
11 the energy efficiency of data centers and reduce their energy consump-
12 tion, water consumption, reliance on fossil fuels, and pollutant expul-
13 sion. Additionally, where renewable energy is used to power data
14 centers, this act will ensure that such energy is being used responsi-
15 bly, with the interests and health of the public in mind, especially
16 concerning power purchase agreements between utility companies and data
17 center operators as they may not directly reduce emissions tied to the
18 data center.
19 § 3. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new
20 article 31 to read as follows:
21 ARTICLE 31
22 REGULATION OF DATA CENTER ENERGY CONSUMPTION
23 Section 31-0101. Definitions.
24 31-0103. Data center disclosure reports.
25 31-0105. Public engagement.
26 31-0107. Annual data center disclosure report updates.
27 § 31-0101. Definitions.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16231-08-4
S. 9960 2
1 For the purposes of this article:
2 1. "Customer" shall mean a homeowner or tenant receiving electricity
3 or natural gas as a retail customer.
4 2. "Data center" shall mean: (a) a structure, group of structures, or
5 infrastructure within an existing structure for the central housing,
6 interconnection and operation of information technology and network
7 telecommunications equipment for the provision of data storage, data
8 processing, or data transport services; and (b) all related facilities
9 and infrastructure for power distribution, environmental control, cool-
10 ing and security required to deliver the desired service with respect to
11 the specific data center, which is only connected to data center opera-
12 tion and would not have an impact on an electric grid.
13 3. "Data center operator" shall mean whoever is either the owner of
14 the data center or has comparable rights of use over a data center,
15 including any person or entity responsible for allocating space for
16 external use of information technology and network telecommunications
17 equipment within a data center.
18 4. "Data center disclosure report" shall mean that report which data
19 center operators must submit to the department prior to construction of
20 a data center, as required by section 31-0103 of this article.
21 5. "Disadvantaged communities" shall mean: (a) areas burdened by cumu-
22 lative environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to nega-
23 tive public health effects; (b) areas with concentrations of people that
24 are of low income, high unemployment, high rent burden, low levels of
25 home ownership, low levels of educational attainment, or members of
26 groups that have historically experienced discrimination on the basis of
27 race or ethnicity; and (c) areas vulnerable to the impacts of climate
28 change such as flooding, storm surges, and urban heat island effects.
29 6. "Employee" shall mean an individual who performs services for and
30 under the control and direction of an employer for wages or other remun-
31 eration, or natural persons employed as independent contractors to carry
32 out work in furtherance of an employer's business enterprise who are not
33 themselves employers.
34 7. "Greenhouse gas" shall mean carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, meth-
35 ane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexaf-
36 luoride, and any other substance emitted into the air that may be
37 reasonably anticipated to cause or contribute to anthropogenic climate
38 change.
39 8. "Host community" shall mean any municipality within which a data
40 center, or any portion thereof, has been developed or proposed for
41 development.
42 9. "Hyperscale data center" shall mean a data center that takes up ten
43 thousand square feet or more and uses at least five thousand servers.
44 10. "Micro data center" shall mean a data center that is enclosed
45 within one standard server rack and does not support critical loads of
46 more than one hundred fifty kilowatts.
47 11. "Negative impact" shall mean any increase in greenhouse gas emis-
48 sions, concentration of particulates being introduced into natural and
49 drinking water, noise pollution or any other form of pollution that
50 would decrease the quality of life in a host community.
51 12. "Power purchase agreement" shall mean the agreements between data
52 center operators and a utility provider where data center operators buy
53 an amount of either renewable or non-renewable energy output from that
54 power plant.
55 13. "Renewable energy" shall have the same meaning as "renewable ener-
56 gy systems" as defined in section sixty-six-p of the public service law.
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1 14. "Utility provider" shall have the same meaning as "utility compa-
2 ny" as defined in section two of the public service law.
3 § 31-0103. Data center disclosure reports.
4 Where a planned data center is projected to have the capacity to
5 consume five or more megawatts at any given moment, a data center opera-
6 tor shall submit a data center disclosure report to the public service
7 commission prior to commencing any construction activities related to a
8 data center. The report shall be made publicly available via the public
9 service commission's website and contain data including:
10 1. Basic information
11 (a) The host community or communities in which the data center shall
12 be located; and
13 (b) The organization of the planned data center as a single operator
14 enterprise or managed data center, colocation facility, hyperscale data
15 center, micro data center, or a container or modular data center.
16 2. Labor
17 The number of full-time and part-time employees the data center opera-
18 tor intends to employ at the planned data center and relevant demograph-
19 ic information including but not limited to:
20 (a) The education levels of the employees intended to be employed at
21 the planned data center, with percentages included for highest education
22 achieved including high school diploma, associate's degree, bachelor's
23 degree, and higher level of education; and
24 (b) The percentage of employees residing in the host community or
25 communities.
26 3. Projected energy usages
27 (a) The projected mean energy usage of the planned data center per day
28 measured in kilowatt-hours;
29 (b) The projected mean amount of energy usage per hour of the planned
30 data center during peak load measured in kilowatt-hours and anticipated
31 frequency of peak load per week;
32 (c) The projected annual amount of carbon emissions produced to power
33 the facility, including off-site emissions, measured in metric tons;
34 (d) The projected annual amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced
35 on-site measured in metric tons;
36 (e) The projected annual amount of waste heat produced on-site meas-
37 ured in British thermal units;
38 (f) The projected overall percentages of energy used for the specific
39 data center, calculated prior to considering carbon offsets, that are
40 generated from fossil fuel, renewable energy, and neither renewable
41 energy nor fossil fuel for that year, and related information including
42 but not limited to:
43 (i) The projected type of energy being used that is neither fossil
44 fuel nor renewable energy, where applicable;
45 (ii) The forms of renewable energy expected to be utilized; and
46 (iii) The projected percentage of energy usage that is fossil fuel,
47 renewable energy, and neither renewable energy nor fossil fuel where the
48 data center is operating at peak; and
49 (g) The projected annual amount of waste heat measured in British
50 thermal units being transformed into energy to power the data center.
51 4. Projected water usage
52 Only where a planned data center is required to obtain and hold a
53 water withdrawal permit, the data center operator shall report:
54 (a) Amount of water projected to be used annually measured in gallons
55 and how that water shall be used in the planned data center; and
S. 9960 4
1 (b) Mean amount of water expected to be used daily measured in
2 gallons.
3 5. Projected water pollution
4 (a) Annual projected amount of water being deposited into the environ-
5 ment measured in gallons; and
6 (b) How water being reintroduced into the environment will be treated,
7 if at all, to remove pollutants and/or to what extent water temperature
8 will be adjusted, if at all, before being reintroduced into the environ-
9 ment.
10 6. Additional disclosures
11 The public service commission and the department may promulgate rules
12 requiring additional points of disclosure, as appropriate.
13 § 31-0105. Public engagement.
14 The data center operator shall hold at least two public hearings with-
15 in sixty days prior to submitting its data center disclosure report to
16 the public service commission. At least one of the two public hearings
17 must be held within the host community where the data center operator
18 plans to create its data center. The data center operator shall provide
19 advance notice to residents of such host community of such public hear-
20 ings. Such notice shall include the time, place, and location of such
21 public hearings, a summary of the proposed data center project, and the
22 specific location of the planned data center. Methods of providing
23 notice to a host community shall include, but shall not be limited to,
24 coverage on a local news station and written notice in a local newspa-
25 per. During a public hearing conducted pursuant to this section, the
26 data center operator must explicitly disclose the anticipated impacts
27 that its data center will have on host community employment opportu-
28 nities, air quality, water usage, electricity usage, and water quality,
29 including the number of new jobs it will create for the surrounding
30 area, and the changes in air quality it expects to cause through its
31 operation, expressed in parts per million and the percentage of water it
32 expects to use of the host community's water supply. It shall also
33 address the efforts it will make to reduce any negative impacts to the
34 host community and its environment that the planned data center may
35 cause.
36 § 31-0107. Annual data center disclosure report updates.
37 1. Data center operators shall submit updated data disclosure reports
38 to the department annually, which the department shall post on its
39 website. Data center operators shall include all changes to the disclo-
40 sures required pursuant to section 31-0103 of this article from year-to-
41 year. Additionally, annual reports shall include information regarding
42 the data center operator's efforts toward greater energy efficiency and
43 overall sustainability that year. Such findings shall be drafted in
44 clear and concise language readily comprehensible for members of the
45 general public. The department shall publicly post the report on the
46 department's website within one week of receipt.
47 2. Specifically, data center operators shall report:
48 (a) Efforts made to reduce energy consumption within the past year;
49 (b) A comparison of the year's energy consumption to the initial
50 projected amounts outlined in subdivision three of section 31-0103 of
51 this article, and, following the first year, a comparison to the year
52 before, expressed in British thermal units;
53 (c) A projection for energy usage for the next year, disclosing the
54 same information as required by subdivision three of section 31-0103 of
55 this article;
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1 (d) Efforts made to reduce fossil fuel consumption and increase the
2 percentage of energy use from renewable energy within the past year,
3 with a comparison of the year's fossil fuel consumption to the projected
4 amount, and, following the first year, a comparison to the year before,
5 expressed in terawatt-hours;
6 (e) Efforts made to reduce water consumption within the past year;
7 (f) For data centers that are required to have a water withdrawal
8 permit, a comparison of the year's water usage to the projected amount,
9 and, following the first year, a comparison to the year before,
10 expressed in gallons;
11 (g) For data centers that are required to have a water withdrawal
12 permit, a projection for water usage for the next year, disclosing the
13 same information as required by subdivision four of section 31-0103 of
14 this article;
15 (h) Efforts made to protect the environment and public from polluted
16 water in the past year accompanied by measurements of actual water
17 pollution expressed in milligrams per liter and air pollution expressed
18 in parts per million;
19 (i) Efforts made to reduce waste heat and utilize waste heat to power
20 the data center accompanied by measurements of actual heat waste expul-
21 sion and reuse, measured in British thermal units; and
22 (j) Percentage of data center employees that live within the host
23 community.
24 3. If a data center operator is no longer in compliance with this
25 section and sections 31-0103 and 31-0105 of this article, the public
26 service commission shall notify the data center operator. The data
27 center operator shall have sixty days to cure such violation. If such
28 violation has not been cured after sixty days, such data center shall
29 cease operation.
30 § 4. The public authorities law is amended by adding a new section
31 1858-a to read as follows:
32 § 1858-a. Energy consumption effectiveness goals. No later than one
33 year after the effective date of this section, the authority, in
34 conjunction with the New York system independent operator and the public
35 service commission, shall determine reasonable energy consumption effi-
36 ciency goals for the design and operation of data centers, including,
37 without limitation, recycling of waste heat emitted from data centers
38 into an energy source. Such goals shall align with the benchmarks laid
39 out in the New York state climate leadership and community protection
40 act and shall be reviewed and updated accordingly, annually.
41 § 5. The energy law is amended by adding a new article 19 to read as
42 follows:
43 ARTICLE 19
44 POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS
45 Section 19-101. Fossil fuel power purchase agreements.
46 19-103. Community discount plan.
47 § 19-101. Fossil fuel power purchase agreements. 1. Power purchase
48 agreements for any energy generated through the consumption of fossil
49 fuels shall not provide economic incentives or discounts to data center
50 operators, as defined in article thirty-one of the environmental conser-
51 vation law.
52 2. In furtherance of the goals set out in the New York state climate
53 leadership and community protection act: (a) by two thousand thirty, at
54 least one-third of all energy used by data centers must be provided
55 through power purchase agreements exclusively for renewable energy; and
56 (b) by two thousand thirty-five, at least two-thirds of all energy used
S. 9960 6
1 by data centers shall be provided through power purchase agreements
2 exclusively for renewable energy; and (c) by two thousand fifty, all
3 energy used by data centers shall be provided through power purchase
4 agreements exclusively for renewable energy.
5 § 19-103. Community discount plan. The public service commission shall
6 create a community discount plan to account for increased energy costs
7 for customers within host communities. Such plan shall make data center
8 operators responsible for subsidizing energy costs within the host
9 community. The discount established by the public service commission
10 shall not exceed twenty percent for the first five years of billing
11 cycles.
12 § 6. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
13 have become a law.
