Governor · LB 1010Large-load electricity standards, storage regulation and tax rules, and data-center reporting
Apr 14, 2026 · Approved April 14, 2026; changes effective July 18, 2026
Gov. Jim Pillen · Signed
Reviewed complete enacted law
Governor Jim Pillen approved LB1010 on April 14, 2026. Senator Tom Brandt is its recorded primary introducer. The official history posted the approval entry on April 17 but expressly says approval occurred April 14; the enacted heading agrees. LB1010’s changes became effective July 18, as documented by the reviewed codified sections. Approval, effectiveness and implementation are distinct. The new Large Load Customer Regulation Act applies to a retail customer requesting a new or expanded interconnection whose total load at one site would exceed 20 megawatts. Exactly 20 MW does not meet that threshold. This differs from both the data-center definition’s peak demand of at least 10 MW and LB1261’s protection for generation serving new industrial load greater than 1,000 MW. Public power suppliers must establish interconnection standards including protected disclosure of competing requests, disclosure of onsite backup generation, site control and financial commitments. Initial studies require the greater of $50,000 or $1,000 per MW; additional capacity requests after the study require an additional fee based on the new request. Studies must be completed within one year after the fee is received. Suppliers may negotiate rates and operating standards that allocate costs and mitigate resource and financial risks to other customers, and must develop demand-response and emergency curtailment or backup-generation procedures. These powers do not verify any actual rate reduction. Qualifying onsite backup generation must be at least 1 MW and satisfy one of two stated conditions: inability to operate parallel with the grid for more than one-tenth of a second, or continuous parallel operation that is non-exporting and meets applicable interconnection requirements. The enacted definition does not require backup capable of serving 50% of onsite demand. The law adds storage to district eminent-domain scope and cooperative powers, and defines energy storage and associated renewable-facility storage. Associated storage must be on the renewable facility’s premises, primarily store its production, and keep aggregate output within that facility’s nameplate capacity. Reactive-power-only equipment and equipment solely providing electric energy for vehicles are excluded from the storage definition. Private storage requires Power Review Board approval before construction or acquisition, evidence of a contract for all energy and capacity maintained throughout operational life, the specified supplier consents and a joint transmission development agreement. The agreement governs construction, ownership, operation and maintenance, and private construction of needed improvements is at the private supplier’s cost. The law does not force a utility into a joint project or authorize private retail sales, distribution facilities or eminent domain. The storage-protection subsection retains the printed phrase “associated energy resource”; its relationship to the separately defined term remains a clarification question. Storage is added to applicable military-proximity certifications, termination reporting and enforcement. The military-equipment rules retain compliance exemptions and a Board-preapproval exception with stated findings. Terminating an approved project requires a reasons filing within 30 days; the Board’s hearing is advisory and does not approve or deny termination. These provisions do not eliminate contract-breach claims or establish a new criminal offense. A data center under the amended electricity section must meet the stated digital-service and equipment conditions and have peak demand of at least 10 MW. Suppliers may require fair and reasonable infrastructure-cost payments or terms protecting other retail customers, after a load study. Planned facilities must notify their local supplier and meet its interconnection requirements. Data-center owners or operators must report annually by September 30 to the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment and the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee. The report covers ownership, size, location, electricity demand, water use, tax exemptions, incentive payments, efficiency and conservation measures, renewable-energy commitments and service life. They must bear decommissioning costs and enter community benefit agreements with affected communities. The existing crypto-operation website-reporting and interruption provisions are not blanket data-center requirements. An energy storage resource with nameplate capacity of at least 100 kW is subject to the annual $3,518-per-MW nameplate capacity tax on commissioned capacity, with the stated public-ownership/operation and customer-generator exemptions. The source measures alternating-current capacity in MW, not stored energy in MWh. Depreciable storage personal property subject to this tax is exempt from the depreciable-personal-property tax. This is not an exemption for every tax or every property associated with a storage project. Storage enters the existing tax reporting, proration, payment, penalty and county-remittance framework. Its presence or supporting infrastructure cannot be a factor in valuing or classifying underlying or adjacent real property under the stated section. Receipts are nonrestricted funds for the first five years after commissioning; that status does not waive the tax for five years. The county treasurer distributes 5% of these receipts to the community-college area where the storage resource is located and the remainder to eligible local taxing entities using the statutory levy fractions. The 5% rate already applied to qualifying renewable facilities; LB1010 extends it to storage. The law retains the prohibition on Department of Revenue retention for General Fund allocation. It does not verify actual collections, college spending or a state-debt effect. The February fiscal note addresses the introduced storage bill. The March revision addresses AM2422 and AM2387 and forecasts zero state-agency revenue and expenditure in its four-year table, while explicitly leaving the amount and timing of local taxing-district revenue effects uncertain. Power Review Board cost estimates and the State Electrical Division’s assessment concern their own agency scope. These are estimates, not proof of no local impact or actual spending; final enacted numbering and provisions control over the earlier note’s section descriptions. The current official 13-518 text also correlates LB1114 changes operative April 17, and 77-202 combines LB1010 with LB1114 and LB901 changes stated to become operative January 1, 2027. This review attributes only the storage addition verified in LB1010; it does not treat every consolidated-page difference or future-operative change as LB1010 policy already in force. The complete correlated acts and applicable historical versions still require separate review. The complete enacted LB1010 does not expressly impose a blanket ban on data-center incentives. Its reporting provisions require disclosure of exemptions and incentive payments. This does not resolve the separately retained Order26-17 announcement-versus-signed-original discrepancy, or prove an application was approved, denied or paid. New large-load, storage approval, grid reliability and data-center electricity requirements directly govern electricity infrastructure and service.
Complete enacted provisions and July 18 effective dates verified. Approval posted April 17 expressly records April 14 approval. Implementation and correlated-law review remain separate.
Why this record is included
New large-load, storage approval, grid reliability and data-center electricity requirements directly govern electricity infrastructure and service.
Retained Nebraska evidence context: energy · reviewed policy context · income-taxes · reviewed policy context · education · reviewed policy context · deficit-debt-interest · reviewed policy context · cpi · reviewed policy context · real-gdp · reviewed policy context. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.
Governor Jim Pillen approved LB1010 on April 14, 2026. Senator Tom Brandt is its recorded primary introducer. The official history posted the approval entry on April 17 but expressly says approval occurred April 14; the enacted heading agrees. LB1010’s changes became effective July 18, as documented by the reviewed codified sections. Approval, effectiveness and implementation are distinct.
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