2 days ago
Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) are working to connect at least 39 GW of publicly announced data centers and other large loads across the United States, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a utility trade group, informed federal regulators on Thursday.
“We continue to underscore the importance of crafting federal policies that build upon, rather than disrupt, existing forward progress, including state processes and stakeholder efforts,” said Drew Maloney, EEI president and CEO, in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). “We are committed to ensuring the timely interconnection of large loads while also ensuring benefits and protection for all customers and the grid.”
According to EEI, Duke Energy, Entergy, Northern Indiana Public Service, and Xcel Energy are among the utilities with major data center projects in their service territories. The trade group highlighted more than 80 large load projects currently under development.
Maloney noted that 20 states have approved at least one large load tariff, and nine states have pending large load tariffs.
“Large load tariffs, processes, service regulations, and contractual terms are all tools in a broader strategy that electric companies and states can implement to reduce risk and protect customers,” Maloney added.
The EEI filing was submitted in response to FERC’s review of a U.S. Department of Energy proposal to establish rules for large data centers connecting to the transmission system. The DOE requested that FERC issue a final decision by April 30.
