US Large-Load Transparency Index

We parsed the published interconnection queue of 56 US transmission providers. Two of them published a load-side queue. Between them those 56 queues gave us 39,232 generation records and 531 load records. Generation interconnection is disclosed by federal rule. Large load — the thing every 2026 headline is about — is disclosed by choice, and almost nobody chooses.

Assessed against our own ingest for the build dated 15 September 2026. This measures what each operator publishes in its public interconnection queue — not what it holds, and not what it tells a regulator in confidence. Method, limits and how to correct us are set out below the tables.

Publishes a project-level load queue

An operator earns this grade only if a member of the public can download a record of individual large load interconnection requests. Two did.

Publishes totals, but not records

This is a real grade, not a failing one. Aggregate disclosure by zone and status is materially more than most operators offer, and it is roughly what FERC's June 2026 orders point the RTOs toward. It is separated out because a planner cannot use it to find a specific competing request.

No load-side record found

We parsed the public interconnection queue of these 53 operators and it contained generation only. Read that as our finding, not as their conduct — see the limits below.

How this was assessed

Universe. The 56 US transmission providers whose published interconnection queues we parse — all seven ISO/RTOs and 49 non-ISO utilities. It is not every balancing authority in the country, and an operator absent from this page has not been graded at all.

Test. Does the operator's public interconnection queue contain records of individual large load interconnection requests? Three grades: publishes (project-level records a member of the public can download), aggregate (totals by status or zone, no records), not found (we parsed it and found generation only).

What this does not measure. Whether the operator discloses elsewhere — in a rate case exhibit, an integrated resource plan, a state filing or a hosting capacity map. Whether it discloses to its regulator in confidence. Whether it is required to disclose at all; on the load side, almost none are. And it does not measure whether withholding is reasonable — customer confidentiality is a real argument and ERCOT states it explicitly.

Where we already know we are wrong

Latitude Media has reported that public large-load data is effectively limited to NYISO and Chelan County PUD. Our parse captured NYISO and did not capture Chelan. Chelan is therefore a discloser that our own ingest missed, and it is named here rather than quietly omitted, because an index whose author will not publish its own misses is not worth reading. It is the first entry in this edition's correction log.

If your operator publishes load-side data we did not find, send the link to [email protected]. We will change the grade, date the change, and record it in the public corrections log alongside our data corrections. That log already contains our own errors, including one we published about ourselves this month.

Who we are, and why that matters here

Watt Street sells interconnection data. An index arguing that interconnection data is scarce is therefore an index published by an interested party, and you should weigh it accordingly. Three things are true and checkable: we take no money from any operator graded on this page; the underlying figures come from each operator's own published queue rather than from us; and every grade above is reproducible by anyone who downloads the same files.

Why it is about to matter more

On 18 June 2026 FERC issued Federal Power Act section 206 show-cause orders to all six RTOs, covering — among other things — transparency about large-load network upgrade costs. The RTOs filed their responses on 17 August 2026 and stakeholder comments close on 16 September 2026 — 16 September 2026. If those proceedings land as expected, the RTO half of this table changes within roughly twelve to eighteen months.

The other half does not. Non-RTO transmission providers received a recommendation, not a directive — and 49 of the 56 operators on this page are non-ISO. That is where the disclosure gap will still be a year from now, and it is what the next edition of this index will measure.

Questions about this index