SB818, titled the Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025, is a broad economic development and energy bill centered on attracting large industrial loads, especially data centers, to West Virginia. It creates and renames several programs within the Department/Division of Economic Development, including a Certified Industrial Business Expansion Microgrid Development Program and a High Impact Data Center Program. The bill authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to certify microgrid districts and high-impact data centers, sets eligibility criteria for those designations, and creates a “Data Economy Liaison” to coordinate site selection, permitting, and development support.
The bill also restructures how these projects interact with utility regulation and local government authority. Certified microgrid districts and certified high-impact data centers would be largely exempt from county and municipal zoning, land-use, building-permit, inspection, licensing, and similar local controls, while still remaining subject to ordinary business taxes, property taxes, utility charges, and service fees. The bill limits Public Service Commission oversight for certain electric service arrangements inside certified microgrid districts, allows special electric rates for eligible customers, and shifts infrastructure-related costs away from regulated utility customers and onto the project customers within the district. It also creates an Electronic Grid Stabilization and Security Fund to support electric grid stabilization, including coal and natural gas generation and transmission resources.
A major tax component of SB818 is a special valuation and revenue-distribution scheme for “high impact data centers” with at least 50 megawatts of critical IT load and placed into service on or after July 1, 2025. The bill establishes a special method for valuing data center property, requires annual reporting to the Board of Public Works, and directs how ad valorem tax revenue is split among local governments, bond levies, excess levies, and a dedicated fund. Any positive tax increment from a qualifying data center would be divided among the Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund, the Economic Development Closing and Promotion Fund, the Electric Grid Stabilization and Security Fund, and general revenue. The bill also prohibits new payments in lieu of taxes and tax increment financing arrangements for covered generation, distribution, and data center property.
The bill’s impact on state law would be substantial. It would add new statutory articles governing microgrid districts, data center certification, grid stabilization funding, and special property-tax treatment, while amending existing economic development, taxation, and public service commission provisions. It would also preempt a wide range of local regulation for certified projects and create a state-led framework for approving, supporting, and taxing large energy-intensive industrial and digital infrastructure projects. Several provisions sunset on different dates, including the microgrid-related section in 2028 and the data center valuation article in 2055.
Because there were no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, the general sentiment cannot be measured from legislative debate or roll calls. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears strongly pro-development and pro-energy-infrastructure, with an emphasis on economic growth, data-center recruitment, and grid reliability. The main points of contention likely involve local control, utility cost shifting, tax incentives, and the bill’s preference for state preemption and special treatment for large industrial users over county, municipal, and potentially ratepayer interests.
SB818 would amend existing economic development, utility regulation, and taxation statutes and add new articles governing certified microgrid districts, high-impact data centers, and a special valuation/distribution regime for data-center property. It would expand state authority through the Department/Division of Economic Development and the Secretary of Commerce, limit Public Service Commission jurisdiction in certain microgrid settings, preempt many county and municipal zoning and permitting powers for certified projects, create a new grid stabilization fund, and establish special property-tax assessment and revenue-sharing rules for qualifying data centers and related power infrastructure.
No committee discussion or vote history was provided, so there is no recorded legislative debate to gauge. From the bill text, the overall tone is strongly supportive of industrial recruitment, data-center development, and energy infrastructure buildout, with repeated findings emphasizing economic growth, national security, and grid reliability. The bill appears designed to be attractive to large investors and developers, while minimizing regulatory barriers.
The most likely areas of contention are the bill’s broad preemption of local zoning, land-use, building, and licensing authority; its limits on Public Service Commission oversight; and its tax provisions, including the prohibition on new PILOT agreements and TIF arrangements for covered projects. Another likely point of dispute is the shifting of infrastructure and generation-related costs away from regulated utility customers and onto project-specific customers, along with the bill’s preference for coal and natural gas resources in the grid-stabilization framework. Local governments, utilities, ratepayer advocates, and opponents of special tax treatment would likely be the primary critics, while economic development interests and large data-center or microgrid developers would likely support it.