H.R. 9825: Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026

This bill would require large data centers to regularly report their energy and water use to state governments, or in some cases to federal agencies, and would make some of that information available in aggregated form to the public.

What data centers would have to report

The bill focuses on data centers with a peak demand of at least 25 megawatts, which are generally large facilities. For existing data centers, operators would have to submit annual reports covering each facility in a state. Those reports would include:

• Monthly electricity and other on-site energy use for the previous year
• Whether the facility uses its own behind-the-meter power generation, and how that power is produced
• Monthly water use and where that water came from
• Annual averages for power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness
• Projected energy and water use for the next 5 years
• Plans for reducing energy and water use, and the expected efficiency gains from those plans
• Any additional information a state requires

New and expanding data centers

People planning to build a new large data center, or operators planning to expand one so that it will have projected energy use of at least 25 megawatts, would also have to submit reports before construction or expansion. These reports would include:

• Projected energy and water use for the first 5 years of operation or expansion
• The sources of energy and water the facility expects to use
• Plans to reduce energy and water use and improve efficiency

Who would receive the reports

In general, the reports would go to the state where the data center is located. If a state does not have its own program for collecting this information, the state would notify the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture, and the report would instead go to those federal officials. Local governments affected by the facility could request access to the reports.

Public reporting

States that collect these reports would have to send annual anonymous, aggregated summaries to the federal government. The federal agencies would then publish an annual public report that includes:

• Total data center energy use and water use by region
• Regional effects on electricity and water rates for consumers and communities
• Environmental impacts linked to data center operations
• Best practices for reducing those impacts
• Projected regional energy and water use for the next 5 years

The public report would not include proprietary information.

Enforcement and fees

States that create their own reporting programs could impose fines and take other enforcement actions. At the federal level, a data center operator that negligently fails to comply with certain reporting requirements could be fined $20,000 per day, with the penalty adjusted for inflation every 3 years. The bill also allows the federal agencies to charge fees to data center operators that file reports under the federal reporting path, and to use those fees to carry out the law.

Relevant Companies

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