S.Amdt. 6840

This amendment addresses the rising electricity costs and grid reliability risks caused by the rapid growth of data centers. It aims to protect everyday households and businesses from subsidizing the massive energy demands of data centers by increasing federal oversight and holding data center owners accountable for their energy use.

The amendment changes the bill by adding several sections that establish new rules for data centers connecting to the electric grid. Specifically, it directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create priority ``load queues'' for data centers. To get priority in these queues, data centers must offset their electricity demand by bringing new, low- or no-carbon energy supplies to the grid, use clean backup generation, and meet specific prevailing wage and labor standards.

Additionally, the amendment requires public utilities to allocate local transmission upgrade costs directly to the data centers that cause them, rather than passing those costs on to regular ratepayers. It also establishes a grant program at the Department of Energy to help States create separate utility rate classes for data centers and provides assistance to improve long-term energy forecasting.