Oklahoma’s HB 2992 is a placeholder bill aimed at forcing large data centers, including AI builds, to pay directly for the grid upgrades their power use requires.
The bill responds to OG&E’s push to raise rates under SB 998 to recover costs for new gas units at Horseshoe Lake, which are partly justified by rising demand from data centers, crypto, and manufacturing.
Lawmakers are signaling that future GPU-heavy AI campuses in Oklahoma will face tighter cost-allocation rules for substations, transmission, and new generation instead of offloading those costs onto residential and small business ratepayers.
The underlying fight is between utilities seeking to socialize “construction work in progress” costs and consumer/industrial groups calling SB 998 unconstitutional and demanding repeal.
For AI infra operators, this points to growing regulatory risk around power pricing and bespoke tariffs in “cheap power” states that are courting data centers.
The article is worth reading to track how state-level policy could reshape TCO assumptions for large-scale AI data center builds in emerging markets like Oklahoma.
Source: New bill aims to protect Oklahomans from data center energy costs | The Journal Record
