Data-center law in West Virginia

W. Va. Code § 8A-7-1

Applies to both

Authorizes the governing body of a municipality or county to regulate land use within its jurisdiction by adopting a comprehensive plan and enacting a zoning ordinance developed with its planning commission. Data-center rezonings and any conditional or special-exception approval a locality requires for a data-center site proceed under this local zoning authority; West Virginia has no statewide data-center siting statute displacing it.

This general enabling provision's own codified page carries no separate commencement date beyond its enacting and amending sessions, so none is recorded here.

Source: Full text of law

W. Va. Code § 5B-2-21

Effective 2025-07-11 · Applies to private

The Secretary of the Department of Commerce may certify a microgrid district on findings that it will have a significant positive economic impact and will attract at least two businesses, capped at two certified districts overall unless more than 70 percent of the district's generated electricity is consumed by one or more high impact data centers.

Within a certified district, a person providing electric service through generation or distribution to businesses locating there may elect not to be subject to Public Service Commission jurisdiction over rates, certificates of convenience and necessity, conditions of service, or complaints under Chapter 24, may elect out of net metering and interconnection standards, and may qualify as an exempt wholesale generator without being subject to the Commission's siting certificate requirements, subject to limits including a cap on electricity delivered outside the district.

The Public Service Commission retains a role in approving special contracts and rates for microgrid customers on petition. House Bill 2014 (2025), the Power Generation and Consumption Act, enacted this section and was passed April 12, 2025, in effect 90 days from passage.

Source: Full text of law

W. Va. Code § 24-2-11c

Applies to both

Requires a siting certificate from the Public Service Commission before construction of certain electric generating facilities or material modifications, with published notice as a Class I legal advertisement. A generator operating within a certified microgrid district under W. Va. Code § 5B-2-21 may elect to be exempt from this siting-certificate requirement; a generator built to serve a data center outside a certified microgrid district is not.

This section's own codified page carries no separate commencement date beyond its enacting and amending sessions, so none is recorded here.

Source: Full text of law

W. Va. Code §§ 22-5-11, 22-5-12

Applies to both

No person may construct, modify, or relocate a stationary source of air pollutants without first obtaining a construction, modification, or relocation permit, and a separate operating permit is required for a stationary source once built. A data center's backup or on-site generator fleet permits as a stationary source under these sections and the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection's implementing rules.

These sections' own codified pages carry no separate commencement date beyond their enacting and amending sessions, so none is recorded here.

Source: Full text of law

W. Va. Code §§ 5B-2-21a, 11-6N-1 to 11-6N-5

Effective 2025-07-11 · Applies to private

A high impact data center is a facility or group of facilities, on one or more parcels, used to house and operate data-processing equipment, with an aggregate critical IT load of 90 megawatts or more, placed into service on or after July 1, 2025. A data center meeting these criteria notifies the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, who certifies it within 14 days; confidential business information submitted is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Certified property is valued and returned to the Board of Public Works under a special method keyed to a base assessed value (the value as of the July 1 preceding certification) against which later assessed value is measured as an incremental tax base.

Where the current assessed value exceeds the base, the resulting tax increment is distributed 50 percent to the state's Personal Income Tax Reduction Fund, 30 percent to the situs county, 10 percent to all counties on a per capita basis, and the remainder as the statute provides; ordinary ad valorem property tax on the base value continues to be distributed to levying bodies under current law.

No payment in lieu of taxes and no separate tax increment financing arrangement may be entered into for property subject to this scheme. House Bill 2014 (2025), the Power Generation and Consumption Act, created this program and was passed April 12, 2025, in effect 90 days from passage.

Source: Full text of law