The August 17 Deadline: How FERC's Show-Cause Order Rewrites the AI Factory Interconnection Playbook
The essay The August 17 Deadline: How FERC's Show-Cause Order Rewrites the AI Factory Interconnection PlaybookThe one-day rewrite
JD Supra national · McGuireWoods · Electron EconomicsOn August 17, 2026, six grid operators file the answers that will govern how every large AI campus in the United States connects to the grid for the next decade. This is the Show Cause Response deadline set by the Federal Energy Regulatory…
On August 17, 2026, six grid operators file the answers that will govern how every large AI campus in the United States connects to the grid for the next decade. This is the Show Cause Response deadline set by the Federal Energy Regulatory…
Each order directs the grid operator to “justify how their existing tariffs provide for the interconnection of large and co-located loads to the electric grid or to propose revisions to their tariffs” (McGuireWoods). Six markets, one order…
Why “informational” reports were the real preview
PJMPJM has already taken the third path. Filed since this cycle began On July 28, 2026, PJM moved to hold EL26-67 in abeyance for 90 days and to file its Section 205 response by early-to-mid November 2026.
The PJM template: the 50 MW line and the December 18 cutoff
White & Case · POWER MagazineThe order, cited in FERC's docket as PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., 193 FERC ¶ 61,217 (2025), directed PJM to create three new transmission service options for co-located customers — firm contract demand, non-firm contract demand, and an…
Above 50 MW cumulative nameplate, that self-supply can no longer net against transmission charges — it is billed as if the generator were not there. PJM filed compliance on January 20 and February 23, 2026 in Docket ER26-5181, and the…
The queue reality: PJM Cycle 1 and 200 GW of ambition
PJM Inside LinesOn August 3, 2026, PJM announced that 715 new generation projects, totaling 201.5 GW of nameplate capacity, had qualified to be studied in Cycle 1 out of 811 initial proposals.
Batch Zero: ERCOT does the same thing, faster
Krishnan Rangachari · SB 6On June 18, 2026 — the same day FERC issued the six show-cause orders — the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved Planning Guide Revision Request 145 and Nodal Protocol Revision Request 1325, effective July 11, 2026.
Evaluating 438,000 MW project-by-project was, as one analyst put it, a queue “too large to be evaluated project-by-project without collapsing under its own backlog.” The Batch Zero schedule runs from mid-July 2026 technical submissions, to…
The reliability overlay: NERC Level 3 and the August 3 gate
NERC · Renewable Energy · ERCOT LLWGOn May 4, 2026, following a Board of Trustees vote on April 16, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation issued a Level 3 Essential Action Alert titled Computational Load Modeling, Studies, Instrumentation, Commissioning,…
On May 4, 2026, following a Board of Trustees vote on April 16, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation issued a Level 3 Essential Action Alert titled Computational Load Modeling, Studies, Instrumentation, Commissioning,…
Formal responses were due by midnight Eastern on August 3, 2026 through the NERC Alert System.
NERC has stated its intent to file revised registration criteria and Reliability Standards for large loads on or before December 31, 2026 (NERC filing in RM26-4). Two operator-facing implications matter.
Second, the underlying finding of NERC's March 2026 white paper is that existing NERC Reliability Standards, industry processes, and requirements are “inadequate for the reliable integration of emerging large loads, including computational…