Summary: On June 18, FERC unanimously ordered six major grid operators to speed interconnection review for data centers and comparable large loads, with interconnection costs carried by the data center. Operators must report spare capacity within 30 days and defend or revise rates within 60 days. The orders accelerate interconnection but do not create new generation capacity.
Thursday, June 18 brought a unanimous vote at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): a package of orders that puts six major grid operators on notice to accelerate interconnection for data centers and other large power users, with each operator required to demonstrate that such loads can attach to the transmission system “in a timely and orderly manner.” TechCrunch’s framing: a government-mandated fast lane to the grid.
Nothing about the date looks coincidental. Forecasts have data center electricity demand nearly tripling through 2035, and Bloomberg figures show wholesale electricity rates in some regions sitting as much as 267% above where they stood five years ago. As far back as October 2025, Energy Secretary Chris Wright had been applying public pressure, arguing that interconnection delays put U.S. AI competitiveness at risk. With this package, large-load integration becomes a fix-by-deadline item at the federal level for the first time.
Inside the Orders
The orders land directly on six large grid operators, and they carry three operative requirements:
- Interconnection requests have to move through review faster, and operators must demonstrate that data centers and comparable large loads can attach to the transmission system “in a timely and orderly manner”
- The cost of interconnection stays with the data center instead of being spread across the existing ratepayer base
- “Alternative transmission technologies” must be weighed — the orders name no specific ones, but solid-state transformers and superconducting lines are ready-made candidates
The orders additionally instruct operators to take a more welcoming stance toward behind-the-meter power — generation a data center builds at its own site. Large tech companies used to take that route “out of desperation”; now it carries regulatory endorsement.
Two Deadlines: 30 Days and 60
Riding along with the orders are two hard deadlines. The six operators have 30 days to file reports accounting for whatever spare generating capacity remains in their territories, assuming any exists. They have 60 days to “defend or revise” electricity rates in their respective regions. This is not a make-one-statement-and-move-on exercise — grid operators are being made to show their cards before the regulator and the public: how much headroom is actually left, and what grounds the current rates.
The Squeeze Behind the Timing
A handful of numbers explain why the orders landed now. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory counted plant interconnection requests that, by the end of 2023, already outweighed the total capacity of the operating fleet — new generation waits in the same line. PJM, the country’s largest grid, has drifted into a state resembling chaos, and major utilities inside it have threatened to pull out. Pressure also comes from the public: a Stanford study documents sentiment toward AI and data centers turning visibly colder, and in regions where enough projects have connected, electricity prices have climbed in response. Connect too slowly and take the blame; connect and watch bills rise — FERC is pinned between the two.
The Open Question: Where New Power Comes From
What FERC is accelerating is interconnection, not generation. New power plants remain stuck in the very same queues, and this package does nothing for them. On Wednesday of that same week, the administration announced it would pay Invenergy $765 million to give up offshore wind leases off California, Maine, and New York; among the scrapped sites, a single project held 2.4 GW of capacity — roughly the peak draw of 1.8 million homes. Reuters counts about $2.6 billion in total that the administration has spent dismantling offshore wind, and Invenergy says the money will move to natural gas plants in the Midwest and geothermal in the West. Urging connections along while pulling power sources off the table, the fast lane’s top speed still gets set by the generation gap.
Three Signals for Builders
Signal one: interconnection cost self-carry is now settled federal policy, so siting models should carry line costs directly in project budgets rather than assume society absorbs them. Signal two: behind-the-meter power has gained legitimacy — self-supply goes from last-resort measure to formal option, though it usually costs more and complicates the engineering. Signal three: alternative transmission technologies are now explicitly required on the agenda, which hands a policy tailwind to startups in solid-state transformers and superconducting transmission. For teams planning compute capacity, grid-side uncertainty now sits in the same class of planning variables as GPU supply.