FERC RM26-4 / ANOPR / 20 MW federal threshold / end-of-June deadline

Plain-English framing. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is the federal body that regulates interstate transmission and wholesale electricity markets. State PUCs handle retail rates and local distribution; FERC handles the high-voltage grid (everything 100 kV and above) and how generation/load is allowed to connect to it. The October 23, 2025 directive from then-DOE Secretary Wright told FERC to open a rulemaking on how large loads — defined as 20 MW+ — interconnect to the federal-level transmission system. The ANOPR is the first stage of a federal rulemaking. ANOPR = Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the regulatory step where FERC says 'we're thinking about making rules in this area; here are the questions; tell us what you think.' Substantive rules don't come from an ANOPR directly — they come from a follow-on NOPR (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) and then a final rule. But the ANOPR sets the topic boundaries, lists the policy questions FERC is willing to consider, and effectively signals to the industry what's coming. The specific topics RM26-4 covers: (a) cost allocation — how should the transmission upgrade costs triggered by a 500 MW data center be split between the data center, the host utility, and the broader transmission user base; (b) study process — should large loads get a separate combined-study pathway like ERCOT's Batch Zero, or stay in the existing serial queue; (c) co-located generation — how should behind-the-meter gas, behind-the-meter solar+storage, and grid-import combinations be modeled and approved; (d) reliability — what curtailment / interruptibility commitments should large loads have to make in exchange for accelerated interconnection. FERC's self-committed deadline is the end of June 2026 — meaning 18 days from now at the latest. That ruling will set the federal scaffolding for every state PUC tariff-design fight that follows over the next 24 months.

Primary source · FERC / Holland & Knight / Troutman / TDWorld ↗