Investor-owned utilities 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, a utility trade group, told 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,” Drew Maloney, EEI president and CEO, said in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “We are committed to ensuring the timely interconnection of large loads while also ensuring benefits and protection for all customers and the grid.”
Duke Energy, Entergy, Northern Indiana Public Service and Xcel Energy are among the utilities with major data center projects in their service territories, according to EEI. The trade group highlighted more than 80 large load projects that are under development.
Maloney said 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 said.
The filing was in response to FERC’s review of a U.S. Department of Energy proposal to set rules for large data centers to connect to the transmission system. DOE asked FERC to issue a final decision by April 30.
