EPSA Welcomes Direction to Grid Operators on Connecting Data Centers and Other Large Loads While Preserving Reliability and Protecting Consumers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 18, 2026
CONTACT: Christina Nyquist | 603.930.8818 | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the United States experiences the most significant growth in electricity demand in decades, the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) today welcomed action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to help meet data center energy needs by establishing greater clarity around the interconnection of data centers and other large electricity users, calling it an important step toward supporting economic growth, maintaining reliability, and enabling the investment needed to power America’s future while protecting consumers.
In a series of show cause orders, FERC directed each RTO/ISO under its jurisdiction to propose reforms for connecting large electricity users to the grid which protect against cost shifting and provide greater transparency. The show cause orders allow for regional variation while based on principles from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANOPR) and the 3,500 pages of comments from interested parties, including EPSA comments.
Demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and other large customers is reshaping the nation’s energy landscape and creating new challenges for grid planning, infrastructure development, wholesale electricity market rules, and coordination between wholesale and retail authorities. EPSA, which represents competitive power suppliers providing more than 225,000 MW of electric generation resources of all kinds in wholesale electricity markets throughout the U.S., has long advocated for clear, transparent, and efficient processes that enable new customers to connect to the grid while preserving reliability and fostering competitive market solutions and innovations.
Statement From Todd Snitchler, President and CEO, EPSA
“America needs to unlock the additional supply needed to support economic growth, and competitive power markets are already helping meet that challenge. Today’s action by FERC seeks to accelerate interconnection, improve transparency, encourage new transmission services, and improve study pathways to permit faster interconnection of co-located or proximately located supply and demand.
The growth of AI, data centers, electrification, and advanced manufacturing is driving unprecedented demand for electricity. The answer is to enable power to be delivered quickly, whether it is making better use of the resources we already have or building new resources.
FERC wisely focused on what matters most: maintaining reliability, protecting affordability, and protecting consumers from unnecessary cost shifts – while ensuring the appropriate regulatory body, whether state or federal, addresses those issues.
Markets are an efficient way to achieve these goals and the market response to these system demands is underway. Competitive generators have announced or added more than 12 gigawatts of capacity in the PJM region alone since mid-2024, and hundreds of gigawatts of additional projects are moving through the development pipeline. FERC’s guidance should provide greater certainty for those investments and creates more opportunities for market-based arrangements between large customers and power suppliers—helping bring new resources online while reducing pressure on consumers’ electricity bills.”
EPSA has long supported the establishment of a transparent and standardized framework for large-load interconnections, noting that the rapid growth of data centers and other large electricity users has exposed significant gaps in existing processes and created uncertainty for power developers and customers. The association also supported FERC’s authority to establish a baseline framework while preserving regional flexibility and innovation in organized electricity markets.
Ongoing Market Response
A significant market response to growing electricity demand is already underway.
- Competitive generators have announced or added more than 12 gigawatts of capacity in the PJM region alone since mid-2024.
- Since 2020, PJM has processed more than 300 gigawatts of generation projects, resulting in 103 gigawatts securing signed interconnection agreements.
- EPSA member companies are optimizing and expanding existing resources through uprates, fuel conversions, hybridizations, and reactivations that can expedite getting new generation online in a shorter time frame and at a lower cost than building a new power plant.
- 811 projects representing approximately 220 gigawatts of potential new generation entered PJM’s latest interconnection cycle, underscoring continued private-sector investment in the resources needed to meet future demand.
- More than 130 GW of power expressed interest in contracting directly with large load consumers such as data centers to build new generation in response to PJM’s April Request for Information.
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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.
