Senate debates microgrid bill to attract data centers; adopts tax-distribution and technical amendments

The West Virginia Senate took up an engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 2014 on third reading, a microgrid program bill aimed at promoting microgrid districts to attract high-impact data centers to the state.

The bill, as explained on the floor by the senior senator from the eighth, would permit a microgrid to qualify for the program if more than 70% of electricity generated in the microgrid “is consumed by or will be consumed by 1 or more data centers.” The senator said the measure would bar utility customers from bearing costs tied to construction or operation of generation, transmission or distribution facilities serving microgrid data centers: “the utility customers will not see any increase in their utility bills as a result of a data center coming to the state of West Virginia,” the senior senator from the eighth said.

Supporters on the floor tied the proposal to economic development. The striking-and-insert amendment discussed on the floor would establish a formula to tax property of data centers and microgrids and direct the resulting tax increment to multiple funds. The bill’s allocations discussed in debate included a major share set aside for a personal income tax (PIT) reduction fund, a county share returned to counties hosting data centers, and smaller percentages for statewide distributions including a state road fund and a grid…