Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026 Author: Rep. Boles (House) · Vote: 92-2 (House) · Signed by Gov. Stitt, May 2026 · Effective July 1, 2026

What the law does

HB 2992 requires the largest electricity customers to pay for the new grid infrastructure their demand requires, rather than passing those costs to residential and small-business ratepayers. It directs utilities to set separate tariffs for these large-load customers, with credit requirements attached, and requires developers to give early public notice before a project moves forward.

Who it applies to

Large-load customers, defined as facilities drawing 75 megawatts or more. In practice this means hyperscale data centers and comparably sized industrial loads. Ordinary households and small commercial customers are not the target of the law; they are the parties it is designed to protect.

Effective date

July 1, 2026. As of that date, cost attribution stops being a statute and becomes an operative standard the Oklahoma Corporation Commission applies to large-load tariff filings.

What a utility or large-load customer must do now

  • Utilities must file large-load tariffs with the Corporation Commission that class 75-plus-megawatt customers separately, assign them the cost of their own grid interconnection, and attach the credit and collateral requirements the statute calls for. The Commission reviews and approves each filing; that review runs for months.
  • Developers must notify the Corporation Commission, the county commissioners, and neighboring property owners within 60 days of buying land for a project.
  • Large-load customers should expect to pay for their own interconnection up front, contract for their estimated load, and post collateral or letters of credit as a condition of connecting.

The first readable filing under the law came from OG&E on June 17, 2026, using a 75-megawatt threshold and a customer-protection charge designed to recover, from large loads, any costs they shift onto the system. PSO has also filed. Those filings set the template the next round will be argued against.

Context

HB 2992 is the demand-side floor of Oklahoma’s data-center framework: it does not block large loads, it attaches their true grid cost to the customer that causes it. Its author, Rep. Brad Boles, won the 2026 Republican primary for a seat on the Corporation Commission, the same body that now reviews the tariffs his law requires. The law’s first real test is not what the statute says but what the Commission does the first time a live load runs through it. The Inference covers HB 2992 in depth in Issue #17 (The Meter Goes Live) and Issue #19 (The Gate).

Questions: david@humanityandai.com