Public statement checked
Answer
Verdict on the wording above: Partially supported as of Statute and PUC page read 1 November 2026 Borne out for new very large customers; the PUC's sentence omits the law's exemptions and its class definition, due by 15 December 2026 (issuance not verified). How verdicts work →
- Who stated it
- Said by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission · government record in Data centers and the PUC's role →
- What the evidence establishes
- Largely, for new very large customers. The 2025 law lists 'required outcomes' the PUC must consider how best to achieve: costs attributable to very large customers go to their own class, with stranded-cost protections. An optional clean energy tariff must bar cost shifting. But existing, renewed or extended agreements and pre-2020 customers are exempt, and the class is due to be defined by 15 December 2026.
- Biggest limitation
- The Commission's definition of the very large customer class, which existing data center agreements fall under the subdivision 3 exemption, any approved data center tariff or agreement, and whether specific upgrade costs have been charged to a data center.
- Checked
- 1 November 2026 · Next review: 15 December 2026 — Commission order defining a very large customer class under § 216B.1622, or an approved data center tariff or electric service agreement
Evidence
What the evidence supports
Section 9 of Chapter 12 (new § 216B.1622) lets the Commission approve, modify or reject a tariff or electric service agreement with a very large customer and says that, as it evaluates one, it 'must consider how best to achieve the following required outcomes', including (1) that all costs attributable to the utility's very large customers not exempt under subdivision 3 are assigned to the very large customer class or subclass, and (3) protections so that other customers are not placed at risk for paying stranded costs. The House Research summary describes section 9 as requiring 'all costs of serving very large customers to be allocated only to those customers'. Section 10 (new § 216B.1623) requires each public utility to offer an optional clean energy and capacity tariff whose special contracts must require participating customers to pay all proportional costs of the new clean energy or capacity resources, including utility costs caused by adding them to the grid, and must prohibit cost shifting between participating and other customers. These provisions bear out the cost-responsibility statement for the customers they cover. The statement is broader than the law in four ways: § 216B.1622 does not apply to existing, renewed or extended electric service agreements or to very large customers taking service before 2020; the very large customer class is left for the Commission to define by 15 December 2026 and is not defined in the statute as data centers (the law separately defines a data center as a facility designed for a load of 100 megawatts or more); costs are assigned to a class or subclass rather than facility by facility; and § 216B.1623 applies only to customers who choose that tariff. The PUC page's separate statement that qualified large-scale data centers pay an annual fee of $2 million to $5 million based on peak demand matches new § 216B.72.
Still unknown
The Commission's definition of the very large customer class, which existing data center agreements fall under the subdivision 3 exemption, any approved data center tariff or agreement, and whether specific upgrade costs have been charged to a data center.
Sources
-
Data centers and the PUC's role → Gov. record
Exact location Very large customer tariffs: 'Cost responsibility' and 'Community support' bullets.
What it supports The statement being checked, and the annual fee description.
-
Laws 2025, First Special Session, Chapter 12 (H.F. 16) → Gov. record
Exact location Sec. 7 [216B.02] data center definition; Sec. 9 [216B.1622] subds. 1-3; Sec. 10 [216B.1623] clauses (1), (3) and (5); Sec. 16 [216B.72] fee table.
What it supports The 'required outcomes' standard, class cost assignment, stranded-cost protection, exemptions, the 15 December 2026 deadline, the optional tariff's proportional-cost and no-cost-shifting terms, and the fee tiers.
-
Act Summary, Chapter 12, 2025 First Special Session (Data Centers) → Gov. record
Exact location Overview paragraph; section descriptions 9 [216B.1622] and 10 [216B.1623].
What it supports Identifies Chapter 12 as the 2025 data center law and describes section 9 as allocating all costs of serving very large customers only to those customers.
Review details
Scope
- Unit
- statutory cost-allocation standard
- Geography
- Minnesota public utilities serving very large customers, including data centers
- Period
- Laws 2025, First Special Session, Chapter 12; PUC page read 1 November 2026
- As of
- Statute and PUC page read 1 November 2026
- Confidence
- high — Enacted session law text on the Revisor's site and the House Research act summary, compared with the PUC page.
- Kind
- Public statement checked
Conflicting evidence
None recorded when this claim was checked. That records what we logged, not a finding that no conflicting record exists.
Chronology
- Published — Act Summary, Chapter 12, 2025 First Special Session (Data Centers)
- 3 sources retrieved
- Checked by DataCenterData
- Review trigger — Commission order defining a very large customer class under § 216B.1622, or an approved data center tariff or electric service agreement
- Date not established Stated by Minnesota Public Utilities Commission — statement date not established
- Date not established Published 2025 — Laws 2025, First Special Session, Chapter 12 (H.F. 16)
Corrections and history
No corrections or wording changes recorded for this claim.
Data
Suggest a correction
Suggest a correction → Claim ID mn-puc-data-center-cost-responsibility and this page are prefilled. Accepted material corrections appear publicly on Changes.