Ratepayer Protection Act would add rules for data centers, utilities and foreign ownership
RALEIGH — A North Carolina House committee is considering a wide-ranging energy and infrastructure bill that would set new requirements for large data centers and make changes to state energy and utilities policy.
Senate Bill 730, titled the “Ratepayer Protection Act,” was scheduled Tuesday for the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, according to the North Carolina General Assembly calendar. The bill was also listed as anticipated for the House Rules, Calendar and Operations Committee later in the day.
The bill passed the Senate in 2025 on a 29-18 second-reading vote and later moved through multiple House committee referrals. The latest bill page shows it was re-referred May 28 to House Commerce and Economic Development, with a further referral to Rules if approved.
A proposed House committee substitute describes the bill as an act to establish requirements for the siting and operation of data centers and to make various changes to state energy and utilities policy.
Under the proposal, local governments would have to require certain applicants seeking rezoning, special exception or conditional or special use permits for new data centers to perform and submit a site assessment. The assessment would examine the sound profile of the data center on residential units and schools within 500 feet of the property boundary.
Localities also could require review of the proposed facility’s effect on ground and surface water resources, air quality, thermal plumes, agricultural resources, parks, registered historic sites and forestland on or near the site.
The bill defines a covered data center as a facility, campus or array of facilities used primarily for processing, storing, retrieving or transmitting data that has a peak monthly electricity demand of 100 megawatts or greater.
The proposal also would require data centers to use closed-loop water or liquid cooling systems designed to minimize water consumption. It would prohibit evaporative or open-loop cooling systems for covered data centers and require annual certification with third-party verification.
Another section would prohibit adversarial nations or certain prohibited foreign parties from acquiring interests in land on which a data center is located or having significant interest in or substantial control of a data center. The bill identifies China, Iran, North Korea and Russia as adversarial nations for that section.
The measure includes enforcement provisions involving the Secretary of State, Attorney General, registration requirements, civil penalties and potential divestiture proceedings.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
