T-8 to Jul 10 ERCOT ILLE Form W deadline / Form W Part A now posted Large Load Integration page / notarized to TSP DSP / miss = 438000 MW proposed queue 89% data centers 3-5 years slower / Jul 24 TSP DSP to ERCOT step 2 / Microsoft Fairwater Mount Pleasant WI fully operational Jun 23 / 3.3B first phase / Brad Smith world's most powerful supercomputer / MISO not PJM / low friction state routing / 550 FTE 10000 construction workers / capex not slowing on T+0 morning / state-vs-federal misalignment produces geographic sorting

Plain-English background on the operational track. Yesterday's newsletter covered the regulatory calendar (VA tax, IL DCIP freeze, FL SB 484, Trump EO 14318, PJM auction open, ERCOT Batch Zero deadlines, Abbott Texas memo). Today's operational read is about what the industry is actually doing on the ground while the regulatory clocks tick. Two data points landed on or near the T+0 morning that materially shape the operational read. **ERCOT Batch Zero — Form W (Part A) now posted, T-8 to the July 10 ILLE submission deadline.** As of this morning, ERCOT has officially posted Form W (the Interconnecting Large Load Entity's Declaration of Intent and commitment to have the Large Load evaluated as a Provisional Controllable Load Resource) on its Large Load Integration page. That closes the last operational preparation window before the July 10 deadline. The mechanic: any hyperscaler load ≥75 MW that wants to interconnect via the accelerated Batch Zero pathway must have the ILLE (the data-center operator) complete, sign, and notarize Form W Part A, then submit it to the serving Transmission Service Provider (TSP) or Distribution Service Provider (DSP) by July 10. The TSP/DSP then submits the completed Form W plus supporting modeling data (including the minimum LPC — Load Participation Commitment — limit per study year) to ERCOT by July 24. The stakes: ERCOT's own June 18 trending topic PDF confirms the standard interconnection queue is now tracking more than 438,000 MW of proposed large-load demand, of which nearly 89% (≈390 GW) is data centers. That queue is estimated 3-5 years slower than the Batch Zero pathway. Missing the July 10 deadline means dropping into that queue and losing between 2-4 years of go-live timeline. For any Cliff-relevant site currently sitting inside the Batch Zero eligibility window, this is the single most consequential seven days of the Texas interconnection cycle. **Microsoft Fairwater Mount Pleasant WI fully operational June 23, 2026.** Microsoft cut the ribbon on the first data center at its Mount Pleasant Racine County WI campus on June 23. The campus, built on the former Foxconn site, is a $3.3B first-phase facility supporting ~550 full-time on-site employees. Nearly 10,000 construction workers contributed over two years. Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, publicly stated 'With our Fairwater datacenter now fully operational, Wisconsin is now home to the world's most powerful supercomputer.' The strategic read for the T+0 morning. Microsoft brought the Fairwater campus online in Wisconsin — which sits inside MISO, not PJM, and has no equivalent of Virginia's per-kWh tax, no equivalent of Illinois' DCIP freeze, no equivalent of Florida's SB 484. Wisconsin is a state-legislative-caution state (Republican trifecta with a Democratic governor Evers) that has actively participated in the hyperscaler build-out via WEDC (Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) incentive negotiations. In that state, the largest single hyperscaler campus in Microsoft's US portfolio went from ribbon-cutting to fully operational on essentially the T-8 morning before the regulatory reshuffle. That's the market signal. What that means for state-vs-federal misalignment. The Trump EO 14318 accelerant kicked in yesterday. The state friction clocks (VA, IL, FL, OR) are all now live. On the exact same morning, the largest single US hyperscaler campus went operational in a low-friction state (WI) with the CEO of the parent company publicly calling it the 'world's most powerful supercomputer.' That's Microsoft explicitly signaling to the market that state friction is being routed around, not absorbed. The demand-side capex is not slowing. It's relocating to states that don't tax it and can access the EO 14318 federal accelerant. Which in turn means the state-vs-federal misalignment that started yesterday is going to produce a clear geographic sorting: the states with tightening restrictions (VA, IL, FL, OR, OH, NY-pending, MD-county-level) will see stagnant or declining new-campus commitments; the states with looser politics and open incentive programs (TX, AZ-with-state-incentive-suspended-but-APS-still-active, GA, MS, LA, WI, IN, KY, IA-county-permitting) will absorb the redirected demand.

Primary source · ERCOT — Large Load Integration Page + ERCOT Market Notice M-B062326-01 Implementation of the Batch Zero Process + ERCOT Trending Topic New Batch Connection Process for Large Electricity Users (Jun 18 2026 PDF) + EPE Consulting — New Pathway and Deadlines in ERCOT's Large Load Batch Zero PCLR + Willkie Farr & Gallagher — ERCOT Approves Implementing New Batch Zero Process for Large Load Interconnections + Foley & Lardner — ERCOT's Proposed Batch Zero Process What Developers of Large Loads Need to Know + Microsoft Source — Microsoft Completes Construction on First Datacenter Facility in Mount Pleasant Wisconsin (Jun 23 2026) + WEDC — Gov. Evers Microsoft Officials Announce New $4 Billion Investment in Mount Pleasant Datacenter ↗