Overview
- The bipartisan letter, sent Thursday, asks the EIA to mandate annual, public disclosures from data centers and requests a response by April 9.
- The EIA, which announced a voluntary pilot on Wednesday, is testing surveys with nearly 200 operators in Texas, Washington, and Northern Virginia to gather details on energy sources, electricity use, server metrics, and cooling.
- The senators want granular figures such as hourly, annual, and peak load, prices paid, upfront deposits, participation in demand response, AI-versus-general cloud energy use, and the costs and cost-sharing of grid upgrades.
- The lawmakers argue that without standardized reporting, utilities and communities cannot plan new wires and plants, a gap that could raise residential rates as companies drive large grid investments.
- The push comes as seven major tech firms signed a White House pledge to supply power for new AI data centers, while separate bills propose a construction moratorium or mandatory disclosures and any new EIA survey would still need time-consuming federal review.