What is an interconnection queue?
An interconnection queue is the ordered list of requests to connect a new power plant, battery or large electricity user to the transmission grid. Every US transmission provider runs one. A request enters the queue, is studied for its effect on the grid, is assigned a share of any network upgrades it triggers, and either signs an interconnection agreement or withdraws.
Answered from Watt Street’s own dataset — 39,173 interconnection requests across 56 US queues, data as of 15 August 2026. Method.
Why the queue is the constraint
Building a power plant is no longer the slow part. Getting permission to connect it is. Studies are run in clusters, each cluster affects the next, and a withdrawal high in the queue can force a restudy of everything behind it.
What a queued megawatt is worth
Very little on its own. A queued project is a request, not a commitment — most never get built. Treating queue totals as a pipeline forecast is the single most common error made with this data.