FERC's six large-load show-cause orders
FERC has put large-load interconnection on a clock in all six organised markets at once. Six Federal Power Act section 206 show-cause orders issued on 18 June 2026 require each RTO and ISO to justify its existing rules for connecting large loads or change them. The responses were filed on 17 August. Stakeholder comments close 2026-09-16.
Assembled from FERC's own news release, fact sheet and June Commission-meeting materials, and from the docket page for each order. Our deadline desk checked the response date against those four ferc.gov surfaces on 26 August 2026 and recorded that FERC states the period rather than printing a calendar date — the dates above are that arithmetic, disclosed rather than hidden. This is a summary for planning, not legal advice.
One docket per market
| Market | Docket |
|---|---|
| PJM | EL26-67-000 |
| SPP | EL26-68-000 |
| NYISO | EL26-69-000 |
| MISO | EL26-70-000 |
| CAISO | EL26-71-000 |
| ISO-NE | EL26-72-000 |
The calendar
| Date | What happens | Standing |
|---|---|---|
| 18 June 2026 | Six show-cause orders issued, one per RTO/ISO | passed |
| 9 July 2026 | Intervention deadline | passed |
| 20 July 2026 | Resource adequacy informational reports due | passed |
| 3 August 2026 | Last day to request abeyance (up to 90 days) | passed |
| 17 August 2026 | RTO and ISO show-cause responses filed | passed |
| 2026-09-16 | Stakeholder comments on those responses | open |
The five things FERC asked about
| Area | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Application and study processes | How a large load gets studied at all, and on what clock. |
| Cost transparency and protection against cost shifting | Who pays for the upgrades a large load triggers, and whether existing customers absorb them. |
| Co-location arrangements | Load sited at a generator rather than taken from the grid — the arrangement the Susquehanna case put in front of FERC. |
| Flexible large loads and behind-the-meter generation | Whether a load that can curtail, or that brings its own generation, is treated differently. |
| Electrically proximate large-load rates and conditions | Load close enough to the point of interconnection to behave as if it were at the same substation — FERC's own example is no more than two substations away. |
Why this one matters more than the usual rulemaking
A section 206 show-cause order reverses the burden. FERC is not asking for comment on a proposal — it is telling six grid operators that their existing tariffs may be unjust and unreasonable, and requiring them to demonstrate otherwise. Whatever comes out of it lands in tariffs, which is where an interconnection queue actually lives.
The separate generic rulemaking, RM26-4, opened in October 2025 at the Secretary of Energy's direction and remains at ANOPR stage. FERC has not issued a notice of proposed rulemaking there. The live clock is this one.
What our own data says about who is exposed
We hold 531 large load interconnection requests totalling 90.0 GW. That is not a national total and should not be read as one: load-side interconnection carries no transparency requirement, so what is public nationally is thin and uneven. Our coverage concentrates where operators do publish.
| State | Requests on file | Capacity requested | State policy page |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA | 258 | 50.0 GW | Washington |
| OR | 158 | 21.2 GW | Oregon |
| NY | 73 | 17.3 GW | New York |
| MT | 9 | 466 MW | Montana |
| PA | 1 | 400 MW | Pennsylvania |
| ID | 24 | 307 MW | Idaho |
| NV | 4 | 289 MW | Nevada |
| CA | 3 | 17 MW | California |
That unevenness is the point of the proceeding. FERC is asking six operators to account for how they process a category of request that, in most of the country, nobody is required to publish at all.
Track the rest of the calendar
This is one date among 13 we hold. The full interconnection deadline calendar is free, carries the standing of every entry, and is readable over the API.
The deadline calendar Read it over the API A free county report