United States HR 9372: Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act

Summary

This bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standardized best practices and methodologies for measuring energy and water use in data centers, including those running artificial intelligence workloads. It also requires the agency to study gaps in data availability and work with the Department of Energy to improve energy demand forecasting capabilities for data centers. The bill affects data center operators, technology companies, energy utilities, researchers, and federal agencies involved in energy policy and standards development.

Bill Text

I 
119THCONGRESS 
2
DSESSION 
H. R. 9372 
To  direct  the  Director  of  the  National  Institute  of  Standards  and  Technology  
to  develop  best  practices  for  measuring  data  center  energy  use,  study  
data  availability  for  the  purpose  of  improving  energy  demand  forecasting  
capabilities, and for other purposes. 
IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  
JUNE18, 2026 
Mr.  S
UBRAMANYAM(for  himself,  Mr.  OBERNOLTE,  and  Mrs.  FOUSHEE)  intro-
duced  the  following  bill;  which  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Science,  
Space, and Technology 
A  BILL  
To  direct  the  Director  of  the  National  Institute  of  Standards  
and  Technology  to  develop  best  practices  for  measuring  
data  center  energy  use,  study  data  availability  for  the  
purpose of improving energy demand forecasting capabili-
ties, and for other purposes. 
Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This  Act  may  be  cited  as  the  ‘‘Data  Infrastructure  4
Energy Measurement and Standards Act’’. 5
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SEC.  2.  ACTIVITIES  TO  SUPPORT  METROLOGY  OF  DATA  1
CENTER ENERGY USE. 2
(a)  B
ESTPRACTICES  FORMEASURINGDATACEN-3
TERENERGYUSE.—The  Director  of  the  National  Insti-4
tute  of  Standards  and  Technology,  in  consultation  with  5
the  Secretary  of  Energy,  shall  carry  out  a  measurement  6
research  program  (in  this  section  referred  to  as  the  ‘‘pro-7
gram’’) to inform the development or improvement of best 8
practices, definitions, methodologies, procedures, and tech-9
nical  standards  for  the  measurement  of  energy  and  water  10
use  by  data  centers  and  the  workloads  of  such  centers,  11
including the measurement of energy and water use result-12
ing  from  training  and  inference  of  artificial  intelligence  13
models  or  other  compute  intensive  information  processes.  14
(b)  A
CTIVITIES.—In  carrying  out  the  program,  the  15
Director shall carry out the following: 16
(1) Conduct research and testing to improve the 17
accuracy,  efficacy,  timeliness,  and  reliability  of  the  18
measurement  of  energy  and  water  use  by  data  cen-19
ters and the workloads of such centers. 20
(2)  Develop  or  identify  best  practices,  guide-21
lines,  definitions,  methodologies,  and  procedures  for  22
measuring  and  reporting  energy  and  water  use  by  23
data  centers  and  the  workloads  of  such  centers,  tak-24
ing into consideration the following: 25
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(A)  The  type  of  workload  and  aggregate  1
energy  and  water  use  by  a  given  data  center,  2
including   complex   artificial   intelligence   work-3
loads. 4
(B)  Temporal  power  consumption  load  pro-5
files  associated  with  data  center  energy  use  ac-6
counting  for  behind-the-meter  generation,  front-  7
of-meter  generation,  and  energy  generation  not  8
provided  to  the  electric  grid  on  a  facility-level  9
basis. 10
(C)   Varying   information   technology   sys-11
tem,  power  chain,  and  cooling  configurations,  12
including  consideration  of  servers,  storage,  net-13
work,  power  transformation,  distribution,  and  14
uninterruptible supply technologies. 15
(D)  Temporal  variations  in  electricity  loads  16
due  to  variations  in  workloads,  technology  con-17
figurations,  and  data  center  locations,  including  18
local climate and resource factors. 19
(3)  Study  data  needs  for  relevant  research  and  20
energy  and  water  demand  forecasting,  and  relevant  21
driving  factors  relating  to  such  needs,  including  an  22
identification of the following: 23
(A) Existing gaps in the following: 24
(i) Data collection. 25
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(ii)  Data  availability  from  public  and  1
non-public sources. 2
(iii) Researcher access. 3
(B)  Risks  related  to  the  gaps  identified  in  4
clauses  (i)  through  (iii)  of  subparagraph  (A),  5
including  the  reliability  of  energy  and  water  de-6
mand  forecasts  from  different  stakeholder  per-7
spectives. 8
(4)  Support  the  development  of  standardized  9
metrics  and  data  sharing  mechanisms  that  would  10
help  provide  information  to  researchers  and  relevant  11
stakeholders  regarding  data  center  energy  and  water  12
use  in  such  a  way  that  promotes  improved  energy  13
and water demand forecasting ca