FERC orders power grid operators to explain data center hookup rules
FERC orders power grid operators to explain data center hookup rules. On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the high voltage power lines across the nation, issued 6 separate orders demanding that every regional grid operator it regulates either prove its rules for connecting a data center or other huge power user are already fair, or propose fixing them. Each order is a show cause order, a formal demand under section 206 of the Federal Power Act, the federal law that lets the commission force a change to the existing rules of a grid operator rather than wait for the operator to volunteer one. The 6 grid operators ordered to respond are PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO New England and NYISO, the organizations that plan and run the shared power lines across most of the country. Each has 60 days to respond, a deadline that this site calculated falls on August 17, 2026 by counting forward from the June 18 order date, with a further 90 days available if requested within the first 45 days.
This site calculated these day counts itself, checking the calendar dates source 4 gives against the June 18, 2026 order date. No 1 source states all 5 day counts together in this form.
Show the numbers
| Intervention deadline | 21 |
| Resource adequacy report | 32 |
| Abeyance request deadline | 46 |
| Show cause response due | 60 |
| Stakeholder comment deadline | 90 |
5 problems each grid operator must justify or fix
FERC told every grid operator to address 5 specific problems in its response. How it studies and processes a request from a large load to connect. How it stops the cost of upgrading the grid for 1 large customer from landing on the electricity bill of everyone else, a practice called cost shifting. How it handles a large load that builds its own power plant on site rather than draw fully from the shared grid. Whether it offers a cheaper connection to a large load willing to power down during the busiest hours on the grid. And how it studies power plants sited near, but not directly at, the connection point of a large load. The order followed an October 2025 directive from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and 8 months of public comment that drew more than 3,500 pages of filings. Some coverage this site could not verify claims the orders reach about 200 million people or two thirds of the electricity used nationwide, but the underlying order names no population or electricity load figure at all, so that number does not appear here.
One grid already strained, and no single bar for large
The order responds to real strain already showing on 1 of the 6 grids. On the Midwest grid run by MISO, electricity demand from data centers grew at a compound annual growth rate of 43% since 2020. FERC itself proposed a starting bar for what counts as large enough to trigger the new rules, a new facility over 50 megawatts, a megawatt being a unit that measures how much electric power a facility can draw at once, connecting above 69 kilovolts, the voltage rating of the power line it plugs into. The Southwest Power Pool, the grid operator across the central United States, already runs a stricter bar of its own, counting anything over 10 megawatts as large if it connects at 69 kilovolts or below.
The FERC order itself names no megawatt threshold as binding. This is the starting bar FERC itself suggested, compared with the alternative the Southwest Power Pool already has accepted for itself, which is stricter for loads connecting at lower voltage.
Show the numbers
| FERC default, above 69 kilovolts | 50 |
| Southwest Power Pool, 69 kilovolts or below | 10 |
| Southwest Power Pool, above 69 kilovolts | 50 |
We have the technology. We should use it now to enable faster interconnection of large loads, lower costs to customers, and help prevent cost shifting.
David LaCerte, Commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, speaking on the show cause orders. Source 1.
Robert Montejo, an energy attorney at the law firm Duane Morris who has been reading the orders for clients, said the response each grid operator chooses will shape who gets connected fastest.
The ability to curtail or operate flexibly could become one of the most valuable tools for getting new projects connected faster.
Robert Montejo, an energy attorney at the law firm Duane Morris. Source 1.