New Hampshire Shakes Up the Energy Market 

On August 1, 2025, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 672 into law. This bill defines off-grid electricity providers as entities that generate, transmit, distribute, or sell electricity and operate as private utilities as long as they do not connect to the public power grid. Unlike traditional energy providers, these off-grid providers are not regulated as public utilities.

Normally, individuals can power their own homes or businesses off the grid, but a company that wants to sell electricity to others is subject to heavy oversight from state regulatory bodies such as New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities. This is the norm for every other state—energy utility companies are either publicly-owned or operate as heavily-regulated private entities. In a given geographic area, a single utility company is typically granted exclusive rights to distribute electricity. Even in deregulated states where consumers can choose which energy supplier to buy energy from, consumers typically only have one choice for the utility that distributes that energy through the poles and wires of the local grid. 

Under H.B. 672, however, an off-grid provider can build its own poles, meters, and wires on private property to serve a customer directly. These providers are now exempt from the public utility regulations that normally apply, which fall under RSA Title 34, New Hampshire’s statute on public utilities. Those rules include protecting consumers from potential price hikes and giving the Public Utilities Commission the authority to inspect plants for quality and safety. Freed from that oversight, though still subject to other laws like environmental review for large plants, private energy facilities can open much sooner.

What Are the Potential Benefits for Residents?

The bill grants residents more options and rights. Electricity providers currently operate in a type of localized monopoly. Consumers have limited choices about who sells and distributes their energy. In New Hampshire, there are currently only four public electric utility providers in the state. This restricts residents’ choices, particularly for those with different energy needs. But, according to John W. Welborn, a senior lecturer at Dartmouth University, “by enabling off-grid providers to set their own rates, H.B. 672 allows for true price discrimination in the economic sense.”  Energy consumers can compare and choose the prices they pay. Essentially, Welborn argues that the bill offers a solution for residents whose unique energy needs are not met by the limited range of public providers.  

If someone wants to reduce energy transmission costs to their rural home, attempt to build a microgrid, or become self-sufficient, they now have the explicit right to do so. Private utility arrangements may allow residents to produce their own electricity and construct transmission lines to supply their homes or complexes.  Residential complexes, including apartment buildings, may now implement independent electricity systems instead of relying on the public grid. Travis Fisher, the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute and volunteer advisor for the Advocates for Consumer Regulated Electricity, argues that the bill comes at no cost to the consumer. Fisher, who advocates for a free market energy economy, believes that in the worst case, consumers stick to their old energy costs. In the best case, a new energy market emerges. 

Under H.B. 672, supporters argue, it is now possible to reduce the cost of one’s energy bill by connecting to an off-grid electricity provider. Utility costs are increasing as much as 80% in states like Maryland and Virginia, with some projections attributing part of the increase to rising demand from data centers. While not everyone may want to build their own off-grid utility or connect to a private company, the bill gives residents the right to choose. While supporters praise the bill for its potential to lower individual electricity costs, critics highlight the potential for harmful consequences. 

What Are the Barriers to Accessing Off-Grid Electricity?

Critics of the bill emphasize that powering your own home with a private utility is a luxury for those who can afford it. Public utilities already maintain transmission and distribution infrastructure throughout residential areas. Lower-income consumers benefit from this shared infrastructure model because the costs of building and maintaining power lines are shared across the customer base. To transmit your own energy, you would need to develop the infrastructure yourself. This bill makes it difficult for regular consumers to connect to off-grid energy suppliers without undergoing the entire construction process to connect to the private utility. HB 672 states that off-grid electricity providers must not be located within or across federal, state, or municipal roadways or rights-of-way, or cross state boundaries. For the average resident, this renders off-grid electricity hard to access. 

Even if households can connect to a private, off-grid utility company, they still will face barriers. Other provisions in the bill state that private providers cannot connect to the backup energy supply on the public grid. Under RSA Title 34, public utilities are monitored and logged through the public utilities commission. However, in the event of an emergency, private energy consumers will face longer wait times to restore power. Additionally, if a power line owned by a private energy company were involved in an accident, it would be difficult to determine liability if the market were flooded with off-grid energy providers. 

How Does H.B. 672 Attract Data Centers and Cryptocurrency Operations?

Representative Michael Vose, the primary sponsor for the bill, says it will encourage innovation and open up the state’s narrow energy market in light of increased energy demand. Recently, New Hampshire has introduced pro-cryptocurrency legislation. For example, H.B. 302 allows for the treasury to invest up to 5% of the state’s treasury investments into bitcoin. Vose has highlighted that  “crypto is hungry for electricity.” Vose classifies H.B. 672  as “enabling legislation” that will “allow someone that wants to create a crypto mining business to connect with someone who wants to provide electricity and […] obtain electricity at a lower cost.” Data centers and crypto farming operations are smaller in New Hampshire than in Virginia and Texas. In September 2025, New Hampshire was home to only ten small operations. With less bureaucracy and regulation surrounding energy provision, supporters argue that the state will be able to attract more of these lucrative operations and generate increased tax revenue and more jobs for New Hampshire residents in the process. 

What Are The Costs to the Environment and The Community?

Data centers may provide fleeting benefits to the local New Hampshire community, despite generating large profits. While off-grid providers might attract data centers to the state, the jobs and revenue they provide are often fleeting. Most new data center-related jobs only last one to two years, depending on the size of the operation.  Data center maintenance jobs, which are longer-lasting, only range from a couple of dozen employees to around a hundred depending on the facility size. Critics say these numbers won’t significantly bolster the state economy. These jobs are also not particularly lucrative, with the average salary hovering around $40,000. Critics argue these salaries do not seem proportional to the level of profit these plants generate. This salary does not meet the living wage threshold in New Hampshire for a single adult with no children of $53,604 before taxes.

Critics also emphasize the environmental impact of the bill. The bill might reduce strain on public energy grids. However, the bill could incentivize the construction of resource-draining data centers and increase overall electricity use. It also contains an exemption from state renewable energy requirements, which may allow energy providers to expand the use of diesel-powered electricity generation. The exemption may contribute to higher carbon emissions in New Hampshire. Another potential consequence of an influx of data centers and crypto mining companies is increased noise pollution, flooding, and water temperatures from the cooling practices many data centers use. 

Other opponents of the bill argue that it shifts government resources to the construction of new energy infrastructure when public resources could be better used to solve other public policy issues. New Hampshire is facing a housing crisis with estimates of 60,000 new units needed by 2030 and 90,000 new units by 2040 according to the Washington Post. According to critics, dedicating labor and materials to this issue may be a better alternative to this resource-intensive strain that data centers bring on to the community and the environment.

What Could This Mean for Future Legislation?

New Hampshire is the first state to explicitly allow energy generation and sales without standard utility oversight. Similar legislation may be coming to a state near you. With data centers becoming more and more prevalent across the country, lawmakers are beginning to either restrict or empower the energy industry.

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