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Data Centres: Boom and Backlash
25JUL

FERC commits to June 2026 grid-load order

4 min read
11:23UTC

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission pledged on 16 April to act by end of June 2026 on Docket RM26-4-000, the rulemaking that will set how electricity loads above 20 MW connect to the US interstate grid.

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IndustryDeveloping
Key takeaway

FERC's June order is the only federal counter-escalation to the muni-tier consent freeze.

On 16 April 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC, the US federal electricity regulator) pledged to act by end of June 2026 on Docket RM26-4-000, the rulemaking that will standardise how new electricity loads above 20 MW connect to the US interstate transmission grid. The proceeding was opened by Energy Secretary Chris Wright under Section 403 of the DOE Organisation Act in October 2025, and on 16 April Deputy Secretary James Danly issued a statement commending the announcement. FERC said the order would be 'quick, efficient, and legally durable'.

Legal analysis from Mayer Brown identifies three contested questions in the docket: whether hyperscalers can bypass standard interconnection studies for accelerated review, how behind-the-meter solutions are treated for grid-exit cost allocation, and who pays for the upgrades large loads trigger. The behind-the-meter ruling determines whether projects copying Pure DC's Dublin microgrid template still pay their share of transmission upgrades; the cost-allocation ruling determines whether the trigger load pays alone or the wider ratepayer base picks up the bill. Mayer Brown's reading is that cost allocation drives the largest economic effect, and that whichever way the commission lands, the bypass and study-process answers tend to follow that choice.

The proceeding will bind every US RTO and ISO (Regional Transmission Organisation and Independent System Operator). It cannot reach ERCOT, the Texas grid which sits outside both the Eastern and Western Interconnection. That asymmetric reach is exactly why operators trying to escape the federal layer have begun routing capacity into West Texas already. The municipal moratoriums in Maine, Seattle, and Northern Virginia cannot rewrite federal interconnection rules; only FERC can, and the order arrives in eight weeks. For projects facing the UK's structural ceiling, where 50 GW of data-centre demand sits behind 45 GW of national peak , there is no equivalent single-actor lever; for projects in PJM, MISO, SPP, NYISO, ISO-NE, or CAISO, the next eight weeks will define the cost basis for every new application.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

FERC is the US federal agency that oversees the rules for how electricity flows across state lines and how large industrial facilities connect to the national grid. It announced it will set new rules by June 2026 for how large power users, like data centres that need more than 20 megawatts, get connected to that national grid. Before this rulemaking, each utility applied its own interconnection study process, producing timelines that ranged from 18 months (ERCOT) to seven years (PJM) for the same class of applicant. The new rules matter because they could either speed up data centre connections (if they allow shortcuts) or force data centres to pay more of the cost of grid upgrades (if they assign upgrade costs to the new load rather than existing ratepayers).

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The US interstate transmission grid was designed in an era when large industrial loads grew incrementally (steel mills, aluminium smelters, semiconductor fabs) and were located adjacent to generation sources. Data centres have a fundamentally different location logic: they site near population centres and existing fibre density rather than near generation, which means they connect to distribution-level grid infrastructure not designed for their load profiles.

FERC's existing interconnection queue rules, codified in the pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Agreement, were written for generators connecting to the bulk power system, not for loads. The queue for loads above 20 MW has no equivalent standardised framework. RM26-4-000 is essentially writing the first national load-interconnection rulebook, which is why its three contested questions are genuinely novel and not resolvable by reference to prior FERC precedent.

What could happen next?
  • Opportunity

    A favourable RM26-4-000 outcome on bypass and cost-allocation would reduce interconnection timelines for loads above 20 MW from the current 4-7-year queue to a compressed 18-24-month process, unlocking projects currently parked in the Northern Virginia, PJM, and MISO queues.

  • Risk

    Incumbent utility litigation within 60 days of the final rule, seeking a preliminary stay, is the base-case outcome based on FERC's last three major interconnection reform orders; a successful stay would suspend the rule's effect for 2-4 years.

Sources:FERC
Mentions:Federal Communications Commission →Chris Wright →IEEFA →West Texas →ERCOT →Pure DC →Virginia →Maine →Dublin →Texas →Seattle →Northern Virginia →FERC Docket RM26-4-000 →James Danly →Mayer Brown →Department of Energy →FERC →DOE Organisation Act →
First Reported In

Update #2 · Maine veto, Seattle freeze, $725bn capex

FERC· 6 May 2026
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Causes and effects
This Event
FERC commits to June 2026 grid-load order
The single federal lever municipal moratoriums cannot reach; cost-allocation and behind-the-meter rulings will define hyperscaler economics across every grid except Texas.
Led to
ERCOT large-load queue passes 225 GW
FERC's June 2026 commitment on RM26-4-000 is structurally irrelevant to ERCOT, which sits outside FERC jurisdiction; this is the causal link making ERCOT's 225 GW queue a de facto attraction for operators seeking to escape federal rules.
Occurred 1 Apr 2026
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PJM faces Monday FERC tariff deadline
FERC's pledge to act on RM26-4-000 by end-June established the PJM 18 May filing deadline as the immediate regulatory precursor.
Occurred 18 May 2026
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DOE lets PJM switch off data centres
FERC's April pledge to settle RM26-4-000 by end-June created the regulatory backdrop against which the emergency order arrived first, pre-empting the formal rule.
Occurred 18 May 2026
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FERC delays its grid rule to 2027
FERC met its April pledge to act on RM26-4-000 by end-June but chose show-cause over direct rulemaking, extending the timeline it had promised to close
Occurred 18 Jun 2026
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Different Perspectives
Indian data-centre investors
Indian data-centre investors
Amazon, CPPIB and Google committed billions to Indian data-centre capacity within a single week in June, a market absorbing hyperscale investment while New Mexico and Maryland tighten permitting this fortnight. Every US moratorium makes that alternative more attractive, not less.
Gulf sovereign capital and hyperscale infrastructure investors
Gulf sovereign capital and hyperscale infrastructure investors
GE Vernova's turbine backlog grew to 116 GW and Synergy counted a 45 GW US pipeline the same week New Mexico killed a pipeline outright. Capital keeps moving toward campuses that can secure power fastest, in the Gulf as much as Texas or Virginia.
New Mexico and Virginia regulators, and the counties opposing the build-out
New Mexico and Virginia regulators, and the counties opposing the build-out
Garcia Richard killed Energy Transfer's Green Chili lateral for a second time on 15 July, and Sierra, Santa Fe and Socorro counties layered moratoria on top; Virginia's DEQ, lacking a PFAS rule, issued Amazon's Lake Anna permit regardless. Consent belongs in statute, and New Mexico's 2027 bill is the next test of whether that principle spreads.
Global hyperscale operators
Global hyperscale operators
Operators are still filing gigawatt-scale campuses and Meta is proceeding with its $10bn Lebanon, Indiana site despite the county-level bans nearby, betting Q2 capex outruns the patchwork of restrictions. Industry framing casts New York's freeze, Oregon's surcharge and Indiana's bans as taxes and levies that push build-out toward faster-permitting jurisdictions such as India and the Gulf.
EirGrid
EirGrid
EirGrid set a 900 MW instantaneous demand-loss ceiling because a single voltage dip can trip many data centres onto backup power at once, risking imbalance above 1,150 MW. It wrote the limit into a standing procedure rather than waiting for an emergency to force one.
US host communities and ratepayers
US host communities and ratepayers
Prince William residents backed the 8-0 denial of Dulles South over the Occoquan watershed, drinking water for eight million people, while Oregon's approved tariff cuts residential bills 1.3% by charging large loads 29% more. Their position: consent and cost-attribution belong in law, not left to a developer's or a utility's discretion.