The data center is ready – The Senate wants to see your electricity bills

Two US senators on Thursday fired the latest salvo in the front against data centers and their use of power. Congressmen Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) asking them to collect information about energy use from the data center – and how this use affects the group.

The senators urged the EIA “to establish annual reporting requirements for data centers and other large facilities,” they wrote in the letter, which was seen by TechCrunch. “As the size of the electricity grid increases over the years, the lack of reliable and consistent data on energy consumption is a major threat to the planning and management of the grid.” Wired was the first report on a letter.

The letter is not the first political initiative to try to impose new requirements on data centers. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday she would activate the rules which would halt the construction of new facilities until Congress agrees on how to manage AI.

Energy consumption by data centers has exploded in recent years. Google data, for example, double their consumption between 2020 and 2024. The situation will not change soon. By 2035, a new data center will be built about three times the importance of the power of the sector.

The EIA is a government agency tasked with collecting and analyzing energy-related data – like the Census Bureau of the grid. It was established in 1977 under the Department of Energy due to the oil shocks of the early 1970s.

Over the years, the EIA has collected information about US energy use, including costs, sources of electricity generation, and energy efficiency programs. It also monitors how different sectors use energy, although it focuses on four main categories: housing, commerce, industry, and transportation.

Hawley and Warren are also asking the EIA to collect more data, including how energy use differs between AI computing services and traditional cloud services.

The senators have specific requests about what the data should look like, including hourly, annual, and energy rates and rates that companies pay. They also want to know about any grid upgrades needed to add new infrastructure, how the upgrades are paid for, and whether data center customers participate in feedback programs, where utilities pay heavy users to temporarily reduce their usage.

The letter calls out EIA administrator Tristan Abbey, who in December said the agency would be a “key player” in gathering information about energy demand from data centers. Hawley and Warren asked the agency to respond to their letter by April 9.

It is possible that this process is already underway, although the EIA has not publicly shared if it is. Changes to the EIA study must go through the Office of Management and Budget process, which requires a period of public comment.

“We are often asked to review. We receive new requests regularly,” Abbey he said at a public event in December. “It takes about two years to start a new investigation. But there are authorities in place where you can avoid this process for two years by investigating small things, but which can be a serious sign.”