An Act providing for the regulation of commercial data centers; imposing duties on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the Department of Human Services and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority; establishing the Data Center Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Enhancement Account and the Pennsylvania Energy Independence Account; providing for clean firm energy requirements, contract filing, commission review, disclosure requirements, backup generation standards, curtailment standards and certification and expedited interconnection for commercial data centers bringing incremental clean firm energy resources; and imposing penalties.

The bill's primary regulatory target changed from all 'large load users' (any facility with 25+ MW peak demand) back to specifically 'commercial data centers.' The commercial data center definition was also expanded to require interconnection to a public utility at one or more points.

New sections were added for backup generation standards (Section 11), curtailment standards (Section 12), and certification and expedited interconnection for commercial data centers bringing incremental clean firm energy resources (Section 13). A Pennsylvania Energy Independence Account was established, and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority was added as an entity with duties under the act.

A new clean firm energy procurement requirement was added (Section 7), requiring commercial data centers to procure incremental clean firm energy resources, with an alternative compliance payment option of a per-megawatt-hour payment if they elect not to procure directly. Clean firm energy is defined to include nuclear, hydro, geothermal, fuel cells, solar with storage, wind with storage, clean hydrogen, battery storage, and long-duration storage, all placed in service on or after January 1, 2025.

The cost-shifting prohibition (Section 4) was expanded to explicitly cover capacity, energy, ancillary services, transmission, distribution, network upgrades, and dedicated facilities. The duration of cost responsibility changed from a minimum of 10 years to the useful life of the associated infrastructure or the duration of the service obligation, whichever is longer.

The LIHEAP contribution structure was completely overhauled. The old system used flat tiered payments ($250,000 for 25-75 MW, $400,000 for 75-100 MW, $500,000 for 100+ MW). The new system uses per-megawatt payments: $40,000 per MW up to 25 MW, then $50,000 per additional MW above 25 MW. The payment deadline moved from June 30 to June 1. The fund was renamed and restructured from a restricted fund in the State Treasury to a restricted account in the General Fund.

Multiple new definitions were added including: alternative compliance payment, clean firm energy, clean firm energy certificate, clean firm energy generation, clean hydrogen (lifecycle GHG emissions below 4 kg CO2e per kg H2), clean oil furnace, incremental capacity, long-duration storage resource (minimum 4 hours discharge), material adverse impact, and useful life. The renewable energy definition was expanded to include nuclear, geothermal, biomass, and renewable natural gas devices.

The interruptible rate definition was expanded to include coordination with RTO mandatory curtailment programs (previously only voluntary). The regional supply shortage definition was simplified by removing the specific loss of load expectation criterion. The commission's regulatory topics now include establishment of the alternative compliance payment rate and calculation methods.