FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | May 18, 2026
CONTACT: Christina Nyquist | 603.930.8818 | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers, today welcomed the Senate confirmation of David LaCerte for a second term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), as the nation faces growing electricity demand, rising affordability concerns, and increasing pressure to bring new generation online quickly and reliably amidst AI expansion.
EPSA said competitive power markets remain essential to meeting those challenges by attracting private investment, supporting innovation, and ensuring generation is built based on reliability needs and cost-effective performance. The organization emphasized that clear and consistent federal rules will be critical to accelerating grid connections, maintaining affordability, and ensuring consumers are protected from unnecessary costs.
FERC is expected to act in June on a proposed national framework (ANOPR) for large load interconnection, which would establish clearer rules for connecting large new electricity users such as data centers, and the generation needed to serve them, to the grid. EPSA said transparent and durable rules will help reduce delays, speed project development, improve planning, and ensure new demand does not unfairly shift costs onto existing households and businesses.
Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of EPSA, issued the following statement:
“We congratulate Commissioner LaCerte on his confirmation and appreciate his continued service at a pivotal time for our nation’s energy system. His focus on reliability and affordability is exactly what’s needed as demand continues to grow.
Getting power to all customers quickly and cost-effectively means taking practical action and setting clear, legally durable rules so that competitive power markets can continue their long track record of success. That’s how we keep the grid strong and protect consumers.
Competitive power generators are already stepping up with the investment and innovation needed to meet this moment. With the right framework, they will continue to deliver reliable, affordable power that supports jobs, economic growth, and U.S. leadership in AI—without driving unnecessary costs onto households.
We look forward to working with Commissioner LaCerte and the full Commission to get this done.”
Competitive power generators are already responding to rising demand, investing billions of dollars across a diverse mix of resources, including dispatchable generation, to support large load growth. EPSA members have announced innovative agreements with technology companies to provide firm power for data centers without shifting investment risks to consumers, along with more than 12,000 megawatts of additional generation capacity in PJM alone since 2024. More than 800 new power projects representing roughly 220 GW of potential capacity have applied to connect to PJM’s newly reopened interconnection queue. Competitive power markets support an affordable and reliable system by attracting private capital, driving innovation, and ensuring resources are built and operated based on real reliability needs, performance, and cost, helping to keep electricity prices in check.
In voicing support for the Trump Administration’s “speed to power” goals, EPSA has emphasized that establishing clear “rules of the road” for large load interconnection will be critical to enabling faster project development, supporting a balanced and reliable resource mix, and unlocking the private investment needed to meet the nation’s growing energy demands without placing additional risk or unnecessary costs on consumers.
Through ongoing engagement with FERC, regional market stakeholders, state policymakers, Congress, and the Administration, EPSA and its members continue advancing practical and actionable market reforms and solutions designed to support customers, large electricity users, utilities, transmission owners, and competitive power generators alike.
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The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide more than 225,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and X @EPSAnews.
