Power for the People Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill aims to protect households and small businesses from rising electricity costs driven by data center expansion. It requires data centers to pay for the grid upgrades they need rather than passing those costs to other ratepayers.
• Data centers consuming more than 50 megawatts would be required to go through a new "load queue" system before connecting to the grid. Centers that use clean energy, install battery storage, or agree to reduce power during emergencies would get priority in the queue.
• Data centers are expected to consume between 6.7 and 12 percent of all U.S. electricity by 2028. Without intervention, the bill argues that building new power infrastructure to meet this demand would raise bills for everyday utility customers.
• All construction workers building data centers or their associated energy projects would have to be paid prevailing local wages, and contractors would be required to use registered apprenticeship programs. New energy supply facilities would also need labor peace agreements.
• States would be required to consider creating a special electricity rate class just for data centers. This would include minimum demand charges, longer utility contracts, higher deposits, and tools to make sure data center operators cover the full cost of serving their facilities.
• FERC would need to issue new rules within 180 days requiring grid operators to set up data center load queues. Grid operators could delay or deny interconnection if a data center would harm grid reliability or raise costs for other electricity users.