Graded Light and tightening. 12 laws, orders, rulings and local actions, each with its source, reviewed 23 October 2026.
No large-load tariff or study rule is in force; NV Energy's four service agreements filed 27 May 2026 await the commission.
Only the voluntary Clean Transition Tariff (2025) is approved; Microsoft's ratepayer protection tariff and the 27 May 2026 service agreements are undecided.
Reno paused approvals to Aug 2027 (1 Jun 2026), Humboldt, White Pine and Wells followed, and Nye adopted a countywide ordinance on 8 Oct 2026; Clark is open.
NRS 360.754 abatements remain intact and uncapped, worth $239 million in fiscal 2023 to 2024; repeal is only a bill request from Sep 2026.
Nye County banned data centers in the Pahrump basin (18 Aug 2026) and caps water at 1.5 acre-feet per acre; no statewide reporting or limit exists.
Scored on rules in force, 1 to 5. 5 is the most regulated. Pending rules set the arrow.
Nevada still offers partial sales, use and property tax abatements for data centers (worth about $239 million in fiscal 2023 to 2024), and the Legislature did not meet in regular session in 2026. Since May 2026 Reno, Wells and Humboldt and White Pine counties have paused approvals; Nye County banned data centers in the Pahrump groundwater basin on 18 August 2026 and on 8 October adopted a countywide ordinance for the rest of the county. On the utility side, regulators approved NV Energy's Clean Transition Tariff in 2025, no general large-load tariff is in force and NV Energy serves large loads through case-by-case agreements, and NV Energy now forecasts about 50% more demand than it did two years ago.
The Legislature meets from February 2027. The interim revenue committee voted in September 2026 to request a bill to repeal the data center abatements and pause new data centers, and other members prefer keeping incentives with water and grid conditions. Boulder City voters decide on 3 November 2026 whether data centers are an allowed use in the Eldorado Valley. The Public Utilities Commission has NV Energy's four large load service agreements (filed 27 May 2026) and Microsoft's proposed Ratepayer Protection Tariff (Docket 20-08014) before it with no decision dates. Nye County's countywide ordinance takes effect 28 October 2026 and its Pahrump ban is being litigated, Lyon County's 1,000 MW Monarch campus still needs final design, state environmental and water rights approvals, and Reno's pause runs to August 2027 and Humboldt County's to 13 July 2027.
No statewide moratorium, but 2 local pauses are in force as of 23 October 2026, in Humboldt County, White Pine County, Wells, Reno. Proposals and expired pauses are not counted.
Tightening. Nevada is graded Light, which means incentives in place and few new obligations. Local moratoria spread; lawmakers draft abatement repeal for 2027. The outlook above says what is pending.
Nevada sits in CAISO and The West outside California. The grid operator decides how a new large load is studied, what it must bring or pay, and whether it can be curtailed first; the state decides siting, permits, tariffs and incentives.
No. Nevada's data center incentives were not pulled back in 2025 or 2026 as of 23 October 2026, though the items below show what is pending.
On Genloop's five-line rubric (1 least regulated, 5 most) Nevada scores grid connection 1, power rates 2, siting and land use 3, tax treatment 1, permits and water 2, a mean of 1.8. The most regulated line is siting and land use: Reno paused approvals to Aug 2027 (1 Jun 2026), Humboldt, White Pine and Wells followed, and Nye adopted a countywide ordinance on 8 Oct 2026; Clark is open.
12 items: each is a law, order, tariff, ruling, utility action or local decision that changes what a data center must do, pay or disclose, or where it may be built. Failed and pending measures are marked. Each links to its source.
Question 1 on Boulder City's 3 November 2026 ballot, placed by the council on 24 February 2026, asks whether data centers should be an approved land use in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area outside the habitat conservation easement. Approval would permit but not require council authorization. A developer that withdrew an 88.5-acre city site moved to an adjacent BLM parcel; the Interior Board of Land Appeals stayed that land swap in early September 2026 after the city appealed.
Source: bcnv.orgOn 18 August 2026 commissioners banned data centers in the over-appropriated Pahrump groundwater basin (Hydrographic Basin 162), blocking the proposed Manse Technology Campus at its original site. A lawsuit challenging the ban has been filed. A county-wide pause on applications had applied since June 2026 while the ordinance adopted on 8 October 2026 was drafted.
Source: ktnv.comOn 8 October 2026 commissioners adopted a roughly 200-page ordinance for data centers anywhere in the county outside the Pahrump Valley, expected to take effect 28 October 2026. It requires a special use permit and a development agreement, bans data centers in all residential and agricultural districts, makes developers cover infrastructure and energy costs, caps water at 1.5 acre-feet per acre per year, and bans evaporative cooling and process air emissions.
Source: ktnv.comAs reported on 1 September 2026, the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Revenue voted to request a bill draft that would repeal the partial tax abatements for new or expanded data centers (NRS 360.754) and impose a moratorium on new or expanded sites. Two Assembly members voted no.
Source: ktnv.comOn 6 August 2026 commissioners voted 3 to 1 to rezone about 505 acres in Mason Valley from rural residential to planned unit development for Copia Power's Monarch Data Center, a 4.6 million sq ft, 1,000 MW campus with a 500 MW gas backup plant. Final design approval, state environmental and water rights approvals and the land purchase remain; two Paiute tribes oppose it and the Sierra Club plans legal challenges. The county's pending data center ordinance will not apply to Monarch.
Source: thenevadaindependent.comHumboldt County adopted a moratorium on 6 July 2026 that expires 13 July 2027 (not within Winnemucca). White Pine County adopted a 180-day moratorium in late July 2026, and the city of Wells paused approvals in late June 2026.
Source: thenevadaindependent.comClark County commissioners approved a Switch campus expansion in June 2026 and discussed approval processes on 7 July 2026 after a Sierra Club rally, telling staff to research the industry without formal action. Henderson's mayor asked on 2 June for a draft moratorium of up to 180 days, but the council declined a pause in late July 2026 and instead requires developers to negotiate a development agreement with the city before building.
Source: ktnv.comThe City Council adopted a pending moratorium on conditional use permit applications for data centers on 14 May 2026 and on 1 June 2026 voted 6 to 1 to extend it through August 2027, or until it adopts regulations on design, noise, water, energy, environmental impact and infrastructure. Reno was the first Nevada jurisdiction to pause data centers.
Source: newsdata.comIn May 2026 Microsoft filed a proposed Ratepayer Protection Tariff framework in PUCN Docket 20-08014. Large-load customers would pay a customer-contributed share of project-specific substations, generation and transmission up front or through facility payments with an exit charge, sign service agreements with defined contract demand and ramp, could bring their own power, and fully self-funded projects could get approval within 60 days. The commission is to model scenarios and take comment; no decision date.
Source: utilitydive.comOn 27 May 2026 NV Energy opened four dockets seeking approval of Large Load Electric Service Agreements with Prologis (southern Nevada), Amazon Data Services (Sparks), Novva (Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, 25-year term with up to 48-month ramp) and Fleet (McCarran, 25-year term, minimum billing at 90% of contract). NV Energy reports about 22 GW of inquiries and 6 GW of signed large-load agreements against 2025 peaks of 6,168 MW and 2,073 MW for its two utilities. No decision had been reported when checked.
Source: newprojectmedia.comPartial abatements require set levels of capital investment and Nevada hiring. For fiscal 2023 to 2024 data centers received $225.6 million in sales and use tax breaks and $13.3 million in property tax breaks, according to the Department of Taxation.
Source: nevadacurrent.comApproved by the Public Utilities Commission in 2025. Lets large customers contract through NV Energy for new clean generation, first used for a Google and Fervo geothermal project. Critics say it does not fully wall off costs from other customers.
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