Scope
Statutes of 2026, chapter 438 (SB 886), the California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act, requires the Public Utilities Commission, on or before 1 January 2028, to establish new tariffs or update electric rules for interconnection of participating customer facilities and retail, transmission, distribution and generation service to participating customers, preventing stranded costs for or cost shifts to nonparticipating customers, and to establish a transmission-level interconnection tariff that assigns transmission upgrade cost responsibility to the participating customer. The transmission-level tariff section applies only to a data center that enters into a new interconnection agreement for transmission-level retail service on or after 1 January 2027.
- Geographic scope
- California
- Jurisdiction
- State
- Authority type
- Legislature
- Issuing authority
- California Legislature
Dates
- Adopted
- 21 September 2026
- Effective
- 1 January 2027
- Scheduled expiration
- See completion condition
- Ended
- Not recorded as ended
- Completion condition
- Not yet in effect on 23 September 2026. The statute states no expiration; dates inside it are implementation deadlines, not end dates.
- Source document
- 21 September 2026
- Last checked
- 1 October 2026 (earlier than tracker date 5 October 2026; not an automatic status change)
Summary
California SB 886, approved and chaptered on 21 September 2026 as chapter 438, requires the Public Utilities Commission by 1 January 2028 to set new tariffs or rules for interconnection of, and electric service to, participating data center customers that prevent stranded costs or cost shifts to other customers. It also requires a transmission-level interconnection tariff that assigns upgrade costs to the data center, caps refunds and sets an early termination fee, and allows exceptional-case contracts before that tariff exists. It takes effect on 1 January 2027; 1 January 2028 is the commission deadline, not an end date.
What this does not establish
- The finding was reviewed against the California Legislature official bulk-data file for 21 September 2026, saved and linked below. The primary link is the human-readable official bill page; that site disallows automated access, so the page itself was not checked automatically.
- 1 January 2027 is not printed in the chaptered text. It is taken from the official 2026 legislative calendar entry that statutes take effect 1 January 2027 under Article IV, section 8(c), and the chaptered text carries no urgency clause.
- 1 January 2028 is a commission deadline, not an expiration.
- The act does not itself set a tariff or approve any interconnection.
- AB 2383 (chapter 435) defines "participating customer" for the same article; it is a separate instrument.
Unresolved questions
None recorded.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- No related action is recorded.
Sources
Primary source · Reviewed alternate official source (23 September 2026)
Link status, checked 23 September 2026: The finding was checked against a saved copy of the California Legislature official 21 September 2026 bulk-data file. The human-readable primary bill page is kept for readers, but its robots.txt disallows automated review.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB886
- Governor of California release announcing the signed data-center bills official announcement that the Governor signed the bill · 21 September 2026
- 2026 tentative legislative calendar (Senate) basis for the 1 January 2027 effective day of non-urgency 2026 statutes
- California Legislature official daily bulk file reviewed for this record actual official bulk evidence reviewed for this record; saved and checked as unchanged