“On behalf of the City Council, we applaud the state legislature for listening to the legitimate concerns Oklahomans have about the potential financial impacts that new data center developments in the state could have on utility rates and bills,” said City Manager Michael Spurgeon. “The Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026 that Governor Stitt signed into law, will hopefully provide some sense of relief for customers that the costs of the large loads of electricity used by data centers will be paid only by the data center and not passed on to individual ratepayers.”

The key provisions of the Act include:

• All governing bodies (Corporation Commission, municipal utilities, cooperatives, etc.) must ensure costs caused by large-load customers are allocated to those customers only and not shifted to other rate classes. Rates must remain “fair, just, and reasonable.”
• Every electric supplier must create and maintain separate terms, conditions, and tariffs exclusively for large-load customers.
• These terms must include strong credit/security requirements, so the utility recovers all direct and allocated costs (including stranded costs if the customer leaves early). There is also a minimum 10-year term of service (or shorter for certain public power entities using tax-exempt financing).
• The bill applies statewide to all retail electric providers.
• Large-load customers (or their developers) buying land outside an industrial park or municipality must notify (1) the Oklahoma Corporation Commission; (2) County commissioners and (3) all adjacent property owners by certified mail within 60 days of purchase. The penalty is $1,500 per day for violation and is collected by the impacted counties.
• The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over its regulated utilities and may issue rules to enforce this law. Compliance is a condition of providing service to large-load customers.
• The act will take effect on July 1, 2026.

On April 30, 2026, Broken Arrow city officials were notified about a company’s interest in coordinating a pre-development meeting with city staff about land use and zoning requirements related to the potential development of a data center in east Broken Arrow. The city expects that meeting to take place in early summer, but it has not yet been scheduled. In fact, city officials have still not had any contact with the prospective company.

In the meantime, the leadership of the City of Broken Arrow and the Broken Arrow Economic Development Corporation have begun a due diligence process to research concerns Broken Arrow citizens have and the potential impacts data centers may have on the community.

“We’re developing areas that we need to investigate, questions we need to ask, as part of a thorough, comprehensive review to be prepared when the company comes forward with the pre-development meeting,” said Spurgeon. “Some of the concerns residents have shared, we share those exact same concerns. For example, noise, traffic management, environmental concerns, all of those things that residents are concerned about, they’re on our list, too. And are part of our due diligence.”

The status of this potential project remains unchanged:

• The prospective company of the data center is unknown.
• No non-disclosure agreements have been signed about this potential project and will not be signed.
• No member of the City Council or the City Manager has met with representatives of the prospective company.
• No incentives or assistance from the City for the project have been discussed, requested, or agreed to.
• No Economic Development Agreement for the project has been discussed or signed.
• Should the project proposal move beyond a pre-development meeting, any subsequent considerations to approve applications related to the project, i.e., rezoning request, etc., be made during a meeting(s) open to the public.
• The potential development is not the city’s data center, it was not recruited by the city, and the location is not property owned by the city.

As new information comes available, the city will share it through social media, email notifications, and by posting it on this page of the city website.