Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed H.B. 672 into law on Aug. 1, deregulating off-grid energy providers that do not use public power lines. This will allow them to enter commercial agreements and develop energy generation projects without oversight from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.
This comes in response to particularly high energy costs in the state. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, New Hampshire ranked fifth in highest energy costs in the country in 2023.
Supporters of H.B. 672, including N.H. State Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, argued in an interview with The Dartmouth that deregulation could lower electricity costs “in the long run.”
“This [bill] injects competition into the [energy] marketplace, which will help create lower rates,” he said.
Engineering professor Junbo Zhao, who researches energy grids, said he agreed that the law could lower prices.
“Without a diverse portfolio and stable supply of energy resources, we are going to see a continuous increase of the electrical price,” Zhao said.
Arshi Mahajan ’27, who studies energy prices in the Upper Valley with the Dartmouth Energy Justice Clinic, said she believes high electricity costs are particularly difficult for New Hampshirites in the winter.
“People are doing things as extreme as wearing six layers of clothing to avoid turning up their thermostat and sleeping next to the oven,” Mahajan said.
Economics professor John Welborn wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that he is “thrilled” about H.B. 672 because it “opens the door” for “innovative” energy providers that “can power high-demand industries,” like data centers and crypto mining, without “burdening” the public grid.
“By enabling off-grid providers to set their own rates, H.B. 672 allows for true price discrimination in the economic sense, ensuring specialized industries pay a fair price tailored to their unique energy demands rather than the standardized grid price,” he continued.
Some critics of H.B. 672 see risks in welcoming data centers to the state. State Rep. Thomas Cormen, D-Grafton, who serves on the science, technology and energy committee, said in an interview that his background in computer science leads him to believe data centers are “bad neighbors” to nearby residents.
“People do not like being near them [data centers], because if you’re near 50,000 fans, they make a lot of noise,” he said.
He also raised concerns about the effects of data centers on local ecosystems, noting that the cooling system for data centers relies on river water and could “flood” New Hampshire’s rivers.
“We have rivers in New Hampshire that freeze,” Cormen said. “Imagine if upstream you’ve got data centers or crypto mining operations producing warm water. If water flows down, it hits frozen water and you can get a flood.”
Zhao said he is “not worried” about providers causing “environmental issues” because the centers would not be exempt from environmental regulations, only public utility ones.
