FPL Tells Regulators Rate Structure Complies with Data Center Law

Article reposted with permission from The News Service of Florida.

Florida Power & Light filed paperwork Thursday with utility regulators claiming the company’s rate structure approved in November 2025 already complies with a new state law on data centers.

The law (SB 484) mandates that Florida utility customers won’t bear the additional costs brought by new large scale data centers.

FPL stated the 2026 through 2029 rate structure requires data center applicants to fund an engineering study to evaluate the project’s feasibility and costs, agree to fund 100 percent of the cost of new power generation needed to serve their project, build, own and operate their own substation, pay up front for new or upgraded electric facilities required for their project, and be subject to a minimum bill to ensure they pay for the capacity they reserve.

The applicants must also agree to a 20-year minimum contract and are subject to an exit fee for early termination, which FPL states “ensures customers are not left paying for underutilized infrastructure.”

The Florida Public Service Commission must still review FPL’s compliance filing.

The law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, requires the PSC to develop what are known as “tariffs” and service requirements to “reasonably ensure that each large load customer bears its own full cost of service and that such cost is not shifted to the general body of ratepayers.”

That includes costs related to connecting to electric systems and increased power transmission and generation costs.

The measure also reinforces the ability of local governments to refuse to build data centers in their jurisdictions. But it also allows city and county governments to enter into non-disclosure agreements with tech companies for up to 12 months, which would hide data center proposals from the public during that time.

When signing the bill, DeSantis considered the measure “watered down” but “a pretty strong first step” in protecting consumers from the potential harms of artificial intelligence, including the costs of running the large-scale data centers needed to power the technology.