Data Center Microgrids

Turning Mountains into Microgrids: West Virginia Passes Bills Streamlining Projects, Permitting

May 1, 2025

The new microgrid and data center energy law was passed in tandem with House Bill 2002, which is intended to simplify and speed up the project permitting process. The Power Generation and Consumption Act creates a certified microgrid program statewide to support new on-site power.

Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor

Aerial view of the West Virginia State Capitol. Image credit Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock.com

West Virginia leaders gave the microgrid industry a mountainous lift in legislative support this week by passing a new on-site power generation bill into state law.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed House Bill 2014, known as the Power Generation and Consumption Act, which many called the governor’s “microgrid bill.” The new law is seeking to boost certified microgrid development, both fossil-fueled and renewable energy-powered, to facilitate the expansion of data centers into West Virginia.

“The Power Generation and Consumption Act will make West Virginia the most attractive state in the country for data centers and help America better compete with China in the technology arms race of the future,” Morrisey said in a statement on the governor’s website. “Combined with the one-stop shop permitting bill, companies will now be able to quickly build, expand, and increase job creation right here in West Virginia.”

Data center expansions, particularly in the advent of artificial intelligence development, is taxing the current utility power generation and delivery model. Some reports indicate that as much as 50 GW of new data center load may be built over the next decade.

The Mountain State, of course, borders Virginia, which holds the national lead on data center capacity. Virginia currently is home to about one quarter of all data center capacity in the United States.

Rendering of the Mountaneer Gigasystem project. Image credit Fidelis

West Virginia, meanwhile, is working to help developer Fidelis New Energy build a massive hydrogen microgrid project in Mason County. The proposed $5 billion Mountaineer project is being designed to produce carbon-free hydrogen and power the co-located 1-GW Monarch cloud-based data center.

In fact, Gov. Morrisey signed the House Bills 2014 and 2002 Thursday in Point Pleasant near the site of the 2,000-acre Monarch AI Data Center Campus.

The West Virginia microgrid will was sponsored by five Republicans and one Democratic legislator. House Bill 2014 was passed in the state senate by a roll-call margin of 32 to 1 and, with the governor’s signing this week, is scheduled to take effect beginning July 11.

If and when built, the Mountaineer and Monarch hydrogen power and data center complex could create a $100 million positive impact annually on the Mason County and nearby economies, according to proponents.

“The project’s four-phase construction plan will not only provide substantial employment opportunities for the local workforce, with 800-full-time jobs and 4,200 construction workers, but it will also have a major positive impact on the region’s economy,” John Musgrave, executive director for the Mason County Development Authority, said when the project was first announced in 2023. “The influx of workers and the establishment of the facility will bring additional business, industry and new technology to Mason County, the state and the surrounding region.”

Natural gas microgrids would be well situated in West Virginia, which sits above the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Hydrogen can be extracted through steam reforming of methane gas or created using electrolyzers to split the H2 from water.

About the Author

Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.