Heinrich Introduces Legislation to Ensure Large Users of Electricity Pay for Grid Upgrades, Protect Customers From Costs of Data Center Expansion

The GRID Savings Act financially requires large electricity user to pay for their grid upgrades and incentivizes investment in transmission facilities 

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the GRID Savings Act, legislation that aims to ensure that the biggest new electricity users play by the same basic rules that have applied to new power plants for two decades, while increasing transparency, protecting grid reliability, and making sure that families and businesses aren’t left paying for infrastructure that only serves new, high-demand customers. 

“If a company is driving the need for expensive new facilities, that company should pay for it — not families and small businesses. That’s the basic principle behind my GRID Savings Act,” said Heinrich. “Electricity demand is growing, driven in large part by hyperscalers, AI data centers, and other large new electricity users. These companies have promised to protect customers from paying for their energy usage, and my GRID Savings Act gives teeth to that commitment by requiring large load customers to pay for the facilities needed to connect them to the grid, while incentivizing hyperscalers to fund transmission-level upgrades. We need to make sure America can meet growing electricity demand without forcing working families and small businesses to fully subsidize the infrastructure required by the nation’s biggest energy users.”

The GRID Savings Act makes sure the biggest new electricity users play by the same basic rules that have applied to new power plants for two decades.

Today, when a company wants to connect a new power plant to the electric grid, it has to go through a detailed review process, pay for the upgrades needed to connect safely and reliably, and put up financial commitments to show it’s serious about moving forward. The GRID Savings Act applies the same basic approach to very large new electricity users. It requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish clear rules so these companies understand what upgrades are needed, what they’ll be responsible for paying, and how those costs will be determined. The legislation also increases transparency, protects grid reliability, and helps ensure that families and businesses aren’t left paying for infrastructure that only serves new, high-demand customers.

The legislation also allows for these large-use companies to voluntarily fund certain transmission facilities and receive transmission service in exchange for funding backbone transmission upgrades.  

Heinrich’s Leadership on Transmission and Grid Infrastructure:

Heinrich has long been one of the Senate’s leading advocates for expanding and modernizing America's electric grid. He has consistently pushed to build more high-voltage transmission, reform the permitting process for major transmission projects, strengthen interregional planning, reduce interconnection delays, and ensure the grid can reliably deliver cheap, American-made energy while supporting economic growth. For the last decade and a half, Heinrich has been a steadfast champion of SunZia, one of the largest energy infrastructure projects in the Western Hemisphere, shepherding the project through lengthy permitting processes for nearly two decades. The project, based in New Mexico, is now fully operational and is delivering up to 3,650 megawatts (MW) of energy across the Southwest.  

Last week, during a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee oversight hearing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Heinrich asked FERC Chairwoman Laura Swett and fellow Commissioners Lindsay See, Judy Chang, David LaCerte, and David Rosner, about how Congress can support incentivizing advanced transmission technologies and the potential to automate generator interconnection processes.

Earlier this month, Heinrich introduced the Grid Connection and Congestion Management Act, which would require grid operators to establish a fast-track process for connecting new energy projects to the electric grid, reducing delays and easing congestion. The introduction of the bill launched Heinrich’s Grid for Growth initiative, a policy roadmap to modernize the nation’s electrical grid and bring new, affordable energy online.

In March, Heinrich organized a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing examining the state of America's electric grid and solutions to lower electricity costs. During the hearing, Heinrich highlighted the need to expand interregional transmission, reduce transmission congestion, accelerate interconnection of new generation, and modernize the grid to meet growing electricity demand driven by manufacturing, data centers, and electrification. He called for investing in a "Grid for Growth" to strengthen reliability while lowering costs for consumers.  

In July 2024, Heinrich voted to advance the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The legislation incorporated several provisions Heinrich had championed, including his Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, provisions based on his FASTER Act and his bipartisan Geothermal Energy Optimization (GEO) Act, which puts geothermal projects on an equal footing with oil and gas projects on public land and will help accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy nationwide.  

In May 2024, Heinrich welcomed the Biden administration’s Federal-State Initiative to Bolster America’s Power Grid, which brought together 21 states, including New Mexico, to meet electricity demand while delivering reliable, affordable, and resilient power. The initiative supports deployment of grid-enhancing technologies and better coordination between federal and state governments on transmission planning.

In April 2024, Heinrich welcomed U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to New Mexico to highlight how investments from recent landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act created a clean energy manufacturing renaissance in communities like Albuquerque and Belén, N.M.  

In June 2023, Heinrich introduced the Facilitating America's Siting of Transmission and Electric Reliability (FASTER) Act, landmark legislation to modernize the permitting process for major interregional transmission projects. The legislation would designate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the lead permitting agency for qualifying transmission projects, establish a predictable permitting timeline, strengthen coordination among federal agencies, encourage community benefit agreements, and invest in local communities hosting transmission infrastructure.  

Also in 2023, Heinrich introduced the Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, legislation to improve planning and cost allocation for multi-state transmission projects. The bill would give FERC greater authority to ensure the costs of new transmission are allocated fairly among states that benefit from new infrastructure, helping remove one of the largest barriers to building interregional transmission.

In 2023, Heinrich delivered a keynote address at the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) Policy Forum, where he laid out his vision for expanding America's transmission network and announced his legislative priorities to improve how the nation plans, permits, and pays for transmission infrastructure. Heinrich argued that transmission must become "the central piece" of America's clean energy strategy and emphasized that future projects cannot spend more than a decade navigating permitting processes like SunZia did.

In 2023, Heinrich also published an op-ed, "The Backbone of Our Clean Energy Future," arguing that expanding transmission is essential to improving grid reliability, lowering energy costs, strengthening resilience during extreme weather, and fully utilizing America's domestic energy resources. In the piece, Heinrich called for faster permitting, new federal financing tools, and investment incentives for nationally significant transmission projects.

A one-page factsheet of the bill is here.

A section-by-section summary of the bill is here.

The full text of the bill is here.

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