Regional grid operators are scrambling to meet FERC's June 2026 show-cause orders, which demand they prove their interconnection frameworks can handle the 62 GW of new US data center capacity expected by 2030. Enverus Intelligence Research graded each ISO/RTO against the five reform areas FERC identified, from application and study processes to cost allocation and co-location rules. The result, according to the analysis, is a patchwork of timelines, costs, and risk that developers and investors must navigate largely on their own.
SPP stands out as the only region with FERC-approved large-load tariffs, offering frameworks like HILL and CHILLS that pair generation with load and allow conditional non-firm service for faster grid access. Yet SPP represents only about 5% of the high-confidence project pipeline. PJM, with the largest pipeline at roughly 11.8 GW, has made progress through its Bring Your Own Generation framework, but more than half of its projects are expected to be behind the meter — and those still draw from and feed into the grid at the margins, leaving them caught up in interconnection delays. MISO, with an 11.6 GW pipeline, has improved cost allocation and co-location rules but lacks full FERC approval for some policies.
Other regions, including NY-ISO, ISO-NE, and CAISO, have limited or no large-load frameworks, while ERCOT is shifting to batch studies but faces a governor-imposed moratorium on new data center interconnections. The burden of evolving interconnection processes falls on utilities, which must rewrite operational playbooks and revise capital expenditure forecasts. As Enverus associate Amyra Mardhani put it, "No one knows what each ISO will do" — leaving speed-to-power advantages concentrated in SPP and, to a lesser extent, PJM.