Scope
House Docket 5404, a petition filed 5 December 2025, would add G.L. c. 164, section 152, defining a large or qualified data center as a facility in the commonwealth able to use 10 megawatts or more and used primarily to house computer information technology equipment, networking, data processing or data storage. It would bar a distribution company from reducing the availability of electricity to, or increasing the rate charged to, its residential or income-eligible customers due to those data centers, direct the department to review distribution-company rates and terms for sales to them, and require the companies to provide cost-attribution and agreement records for review. The docket history shows referral to the House Committee on Rules on 11 December 2025.
- Geographic scope
- Massachusetts
- Jurisdiction
- State
- Authority type
- Legislature
- Issuing authority
- Massachusetts General Court
Dates
- Adopted
- No adoption day is recorded
- Effective
- Not enacted
- Scheduled expiration
- None scheduled
- Ended
- Not recorded as ended
- Completion condition
- None stated
- Source document
- 5 December 2025
- Last checked
- 5 October 2026
Summary
House Docket 5404 is a filed petition, An Act relative to the cost of electricity at large and qualified data centers, that would protect residential and income-eligible distribution customers from data-center-driven rate increases and require department review of data center rates and terms. The opened docket history shows only referral to House Rules on 11 December 2025.
What this does not establish
- This is a filed petition subject to Joint Rule 12, not a bill reported by a committee; no action after 11 December 2025 is shown.
- The petition would not itself set a tariff; any department review or rule would be a later instrument.
Unresolved questions
- Whether the petition later received a bill number or further action.
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
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/HD5404.pdf