FERC Backs PJM Data Center Registry, Rejects Curtailment Plan

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a registry of large electricity users, including data centers, in an Oct. 9 order in Docket ER26-3515, but rejected PJM Interconnection's plan to curtail those customers ahead of other demand response when the grid is stressed. The order keeps PJM's 50 MW definition of a large load and a reporting registry that took effect Oct. 12, while striking the centerpiece of the grid operator's August filing. Reuters first reported the split decision.
Official panoramic view of the Kevin J. McIntyre Commission Meeting Room at FERC headquarters.
The rejected piece is the Interim Resource Adequacy Service, or IRAS. Under it, a new large load could connect before matching new generation existed, in exchange for agreeing to be curtailed before PJM called on pre-emergency demand response. IRAS would have applied to large loads entering service after June 1, 2027. FERC also rejected PJM's "bring your own new capacity" rules.

FERC's objection was jurisdictional, according to Utility Dive. The commission found elements of the filing that put obligations directly on new large loads, which are mostly retail customers, and others that effectively picked which retail customers would be curtailed first. The compensation terms, it said, set a retail rate. Those choices belong to the states, the order holds.

"States have a crucial role to play in this challenge by designating which retail customers must be curtailed when the system is stressed, and we strongly encourage states to continue their important work on this issue," the commission wrote.

What survives is narrower. The registry requires each large load, defined as cumulative peak demand of 50 MW or more at a single electrical site, to report its location, ramp schedule and capacity supply arrangements. For projects already in PJM's interconnection queue, the immediate effect is paperwork rather than a change in connection timelines.

The stakes are large. PJM runs the largest US grid, serving 13 states and the District of Columbia and about 67 million people. Its July 14 auction for the 2028/2029 delivery year cleared 138,318 MW, 6,831 MW short of the reliability requirement, and the operator forecasts roughly 70 GW of new large-load demand by 2038.

Commissioner David Rosner concurred, warning that excluding IRAS loads from the capacity auction demand curve could signal surplus capacity while the region sheds load involuntarily, which he called "economically inefficient." Curtailment, he wrote, should come only "after voluntary demand response resources have been exhausted."

Analysts at Jefferies told clients the ruling could keep PJM capacity prices higher for longer and named Constellation, NRG, Talen and Vistra as likely beneficiaries, with Ohio and Pennsylvania the states to watch for a revival. The decision lands about five weeks after FERC rejected key parts of PJM's separate backstop procurement, which the commission suspended for five months on Sept. 29 over cost allocation.

Baxtel tracks more than 5,200 data center sites across the United States, operated by 808 providers; the largest is IREN's Childress, Texas campus at 200 MW.

PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields said the operator is reviewing the order with "an eye toward how we can fulfill FERC's requirements." No refile deadline was set, and the shortfall that prompted the filing has not moved.

For developers wiring gigawatts into a constrained grid, the order draws a clear line. Regulators want visibility into who is drawing power and when, but they are not yet willing to let a single grid operator decide which customers lose power first. In the largest US market, the fast-track connection that traded curtailment risk for speed is off the table, and the next move belongs to the states.

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