All Six Grid Operators Ask FERC for 90 More Days on Large-Load Rules, Pushing Filings to November 16
- FERC & Federal Policy & Markets Regulatory
Marin Holt
- 0
- 7 minutes read
- Extension requested by all six operators: 90 days
- Original show-cause deadline: August 17, 2026
- New target filing date: November 16, 2026
- PJM Cycle 1 interconnection applications: 212,000 MW
- Data center share of U.S. electricity today: 4.4%
Every regional grid operator in the United States has asked FERC for more time to rewrite the rules that govern how data centers connect to the grid. FERC issued six show-cause orders on June 18, 2026, one to each RTO and ISO. The orders gave them until August 17 to justify their tariffs or fix them. All six asked for roughly 90 more days instead. PJM filed its motion alongside its transmission owners on July 28. Its Cycle 1 queue holds 829 applications totaling roughly 212,000 MW. Substantive filings now land on or before November 16, 2026.
Why It Matters
A developer reading the June orders saw a fix arriving this summer. It now lands in late November at the earliest. FERC review of whatever gets filed pushes real tariff language into 2027. Interconnection terms for large loads stay unsettled straight through the fall. Anyone signing a load-serving agreement in that window carries the tariff risk on their own balance sheet.
Critical Perspective
All six operators asked for roughly 90 more days, which moves substantive filings to November 16, 2026. ISO New England reported no significant large load growth at all, while PJM is carrying a Cycle 1 queue of roughly 212,000 MW, and FERC handed both the same pause. Order 2023 set the template here, when interconnection compliance dates slipped through repeated extension requests and the queues kept growing while the rules were being written. If the six operators do not share one problem, why are they being given one deadline?
What FERC Ordered in June
FERC acted under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act. It found each of the six tariffs unjust and unreasonable where large loads are concerned. The dockets run from EL26-67 for PJM through EL26-72 for ISO New England. FERC named five areas for reform: application and study processes, cost transparency and cost-shifting protections, co-location arrangements, flexible large loads paired with behind-the-meter generation, and electrically proximate load.
What the Operators Reported
The informational reports filed on July 20 undercut the idea that these six operators face one shared emergency. NYISO is the one with a real hole in front of it, projecting a statewide shortfall above 1,800 MW by 2033 and localized New York City needs as early as 2031. SPP and CAISO read almost comfortable by comparison. SPP logged 36 active expedited requests near 13.3 GW while holding a 17.1% reserve margin across its East balancing areas, and CAISO has added nearly 36,000 MW since 2020 against a surplus above 2.5 GW. ISO New England reported no significant large load growth at all.
That spread is the awkward part of a uniform pause. CAISO and ISO New England describe headroom. PJM describes an interconnection queue larger than the peak demand of most national grids, and both received the same 90 days. Data centers consume about 4.4% of U.S. electricity today, and DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory project 10% to 17% by the early 2030s. PJM residential bills rose $10 to $21 a month over the past year. The cost of waiting is real, and it is not shared evenly.
Sources
- RTO Insider
- McGuireWoods, FERC Section 206 Show Cause Orders
- Climate Solutions Legal Digest
- FERC, June 2026 Commission Meeting Summaries
- Microgrid Knowledge
