Data Center Grid Operator Watchlist

Interconnection of new data centers is paused statewide while ERCOT audits its entire large-load queue under Gov. Abbott's August 3, 2026 directive. The audit report is due to the PUCT by December 10, 2026, and ERCOT has told regulators the Batch Zero study will miss its April 9, 2027 deadline with no replacement date set. Texas law already lets ERCOT remotely disconnect non-critical loads of 75 MW or more during firm load shed.

Filed the most restrictive large-load framework in the country on August 13, 2026: new loads of 50 MW or more entering service after June 1, 2027 either bring their own new capacity or take Interim Resource Adequacy Service, under which their unsupported demand is curtailed at EEA1 — ahead of residential customers. Pending at FERC with a requested October 12, 2026 effective date.

Building a faster path rather than a pause: a zero-injection interconnection agreement for co-located generation and a parallel study process that runs large-load analysis concurrently instead of sequentially. MISO reports it is currently resource adequate but says new tools are needed to keep pace with large-load growth.

First mover on conditional service. FERC approved the High Impact Large Load framework in January 2026, trading speed for curtailability: qualifying loads get interconnection agreements on a compressed timeline in exchange for accepting the lowest curtailment priority when the system is short.

The least queue-constrained major market, with a surplus above its reliability standard and a comparatively modest data-center forecast. Its large-load rules are still in stakeholder process, with a compliance filing targeted for November 16, 2026.

Constrained by state policy as much as by the grid. Gov. Hochul's Executive Order 62 holds state environmental permits for new hyperscale data centers pending a Generic Environmental Impact Statement, and NYISO's own planning shows a statewide resource adequacy violation beginning in 2033, with New York City needs emerging as early as 2031.

Has seen little large-load growth so far and is legislating ahead of it: its show-cause response proposes requiring new large loads to bring their own new generation and excluding them from the Installed Capacity Requirement so their costs do not shift onto existing ratepayers.

Forced the entire question onto the national calendar. On June 18, 2026 FERC issued Section 206 show-cause orders to all six jurisdictional RTOs and ISOs, preliminarily finding their tariffs unjust and unreasonable for lacking clear large-load and co-located-load rules, and set an August 17, 2026 response deadline. Every operator framework on this page traces to those orders.

The reliability layer. NERC's Large Loads Task Force is documenting how data centers behave during grid disturbances — including simultaneous voltage-sensitive load loss — and its reliability assessments now attribute the sharpest demand-growth revisions in decades to data centers.