“Large Loads”—Meaning Data Centers—Won’t Wait

In the September 2026 issue of Climate and Energy, Senior Managing Director Jeff D. Makholm and Director Laura T.W. Olive examine the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) response to “large loads” (i.e., data centers). At its 18 June 2026 Open Meeting, the FERC directed its six regional transmission organizations (RTOs) to develop their own remedies through “show cause” proceedings, requiring them to justify why their existing means for dealing with large loads are “just and reasonable” or propose and implement specific remedies.

The authors explain that the show cause orders reflect the FERC’s desire to speed up the process by bypassing the normal “notice and comment” period that would accompany new rules sensitive to the needs of data centers. They conclude that this approach will likely not work for two interrelated reasons. First, they state that the novelty, colossal scale, and highly evident risk of the new industrial activity in data centers do not reasonably fit