This bill creates new regulatory requirements for large data centers (defined as “emerging large energy use facilities,” generally NAICS 518210 facilities with 20 MW or more contract demand), adds new sections to several chapters of the RCW, and amends existing statutes including RCW 19.29A.010, RCW 70A.65.120, and RCW 82.08.988. It requires electric utilities to adopt specific “emerging large energy use facility” tariffs or policies (investor-owned utilities must file with the Utilities and Transportation Commission and consumer-owned utilities must submit to their governing bodies) by October 1, 2026, and establishes procedural review timelines. The tariff/policy regime is procedural and contractual in nature (not a new crime): it prescribes a minimum 10-year contract term, full cost-recovery charges (including interconnection, infrastructure, transmission and compliance costs), collateral/exit fee provisions, requirements for demonstrating marginal-load management (demand response or equivalent peak reductions), and pricing that may include real-time or dynamic structures. The bill imposes reporting, certification, and procurement requirements on facility owners. Owners must publish sustainability reports and file detailed annual reports with the Department of Ecology (including energy, water, refrigerant, cooling technology, emissions and permitting details) on specified schedules, and make those reports public. It requires renewable energy credit (REC) retirement into a designated retirement subaccount and displaces double counting; the facility owner, not the utility, is responsible for REC retirement. Facilities commencing after July 1, 2026 (or expanded facilities) must certify that by 2031 at least 80% of annual energy and capacity needs were served by renewable or nonemitting generation from resources commencing on/after January 1, 2026, and must certify 100% compliance beginning in 2046; eligible electricity must be acquired with the REC in a single transaction and used only to supply the facility. The commission and the department must post best practices for interconnection queue readiness by January 1, 2027, which facilities seeking interconnection must follow beginning that date. The bill also creates tax exemptions and related conditions. It adds exemptions to chapters 82.08 and 82.12 RCW for qualifying businesses and tenants purchasing and using eligible server equipment and eligible power infrastructure in “eligible computer data centers” that meet location, size (at least 20,000 square feet dedicated to servers and overall 100,000 square feet for the facility) and construction-timing criteria (construction commencing after June 30, 2026 and before July 1, 2029). Exemption certificates are limited (no more than one issued per calendar year), are effective on receipt of application, and expire after one year unless construction has commenced. To qualify, certificate holders must meet specified family-wage job-creation thresholds within six years, obtain sustainable-design certification within three years after placing a newly constructed center in service, and comply with annual tax performance reporting; failure to meet requirements can trigger repayment of previously exempted taxes, cancellation of the certificate, and a potential additional 10% penalty. The bill also requires community workforce agreements or project labor agreements, area-standard prevailing wages, and apprenticeship utilization for behind-the-meter energy projects and conditions exemption eligibility on certain labor and wage commitments. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee must review the tax preference by July 1, 2029. The provided text is incomplete in important respects. The specific standards that tariffs and contracts must meet (subsections referenced as (4) and (5)) are cut off and not included here; the full amended language for RCW 70A.65.120 and RCW 82.08.988 is only partly present; the text of “section 9” (which governs exemption certificates) is missing; and the identity of “the department” charged with issuing certificates and certain duties is not specified in the extracted facts. Those missing portions prevent a complete statement of eligibility procedures, enforcement mechanisms, and some technical standards.

If enacted, utilities will be required to adopt special tariffs and contract rules for large data centers by late 2026 that let utilities recover the full costs of serving those facilities, demand long contracts (minimum ten years), require demand‑response or equivalent peak reductions, and use pricing that can reflect real‑time system conditions. Data centers will face new transparency and compliance duties: public sustainability reports before permitting or by early 2027, annual detailed water/energy/refrigerant reports to the ecology department, retirement of renewable energy credits for their load, and phased requirements to source most or all of their energy from newer renewable or nonemitting generation (about 80% starting in 2031 and 100% by 2046 for new or expanded facilities). The bill also creates limited, conditional sales and use tax exemptions for qualifying new data centers in specified counties, but those exemptions require creating and maintaining family‑wage jobs and meeting sustainable‑design standards within set timeframes or face repayment and cancellation. The most affected parties are data center owners and tenants, electric utilities, and state agencies. Utilities gain clearer tools to charge and protect ratepayers from cost shifts and to insist on operational information and contract protections, which likely raises the service cost and contracting risk for data centers. Data centers will likely face higher administrative and compliance costs, obligations to secure or contract for qualifying renewable power and RECs, and the risk of losing tax incentives if job or green‑building conditions aren’t met. State agencies and commissions will have new rulemaking, reporting, and enforcement duties. Important implementation details are missing from the provided text (specific tariff standards, the identity of the administering department for certificates, and full tax‑exemption application procedures), so how strictly some requirements are applied and enforced remains uncertain.