Companion to The Quiet Rewrite: Every US Grid Operator Is Rebuilding the Rules for AI Data Centers — At the Same Time.
Every load-bearing claim in the article, mapped to the primary docket, filing, datasheet, or board minute that supports it.
If you challenge any specific number, date, tariff, or technical claim in this report, the trail is here.
Methodology. This is not a press round-up. Every URL below is either (a) a primary regulatory filing or board decision, (b) an Independent Market Monitor or system operator’s own published analysis, (c) a manufacturer’s datasheet for the hardware standard in question, or (d) the legal text of the legislation or rule itself. No paywalled trade-press summaries are load-bearing. Where a primary URL has rotated, the docket number, filing date, and document title are included so the record can be pulled at the source agency directly.
1 · Federal layerFERC · DOE · NERC
Claim
Primary source
Document / URL
DOE Secretary Wright invoked Section 403 of the DOE Organization Act on October 23, 2025, directing FERC to initiate rulemaking on standardized large-load interconnection; accompanied by 14 principles including joint co-located generation+load interconnection requests.
U.S. Department of Energy press release, October 23, 2025
FERC December 18, 2025 order in Docket EL25-49-000 found PJM’s tariff “unjust and unreasonable” and ordered PJM to implement transparent rules for large loads co-located with generation resources.
DOE issued 202(c) emergency orders during Winter Storm Fern (Jan 24–26, 2026) directing PJM, Duke Energy, and ERCOT to keep diesel generators ready and dispatchable.
NERC Standards Committee accepted SAR for new Reliability Standard targeting computational load on March 18, 2026 (Project 2026-02 — Computational Load Alignment Phase 1).
NERC Project 2026-02; comment period through April 30, 2026
NERC RSTC approved Large Loads Working Group whitepaper #2, “Assessment of Gaps in Existing Practices, Requirements, and Reliability Standards for Emerging Large Loads,” on March 12, 2026.
Full voltage ride-through curve, §2.14 Table A: continuous 0.9–1.1 pu; 2.0 s at 0.8–0.9 pu; 0.5 s at 0.5–0.8 pu; 0.25 s at 0.2–0.5 pu; 0.15 s below 0.2 pu. Per-unit measured at the Service Delivery Point (138 kV / 345 kV).
Strict ride-through band effective January 1, 2028. Interim band before that date allows proportional reduction; strict band requires continued active power consumption.
Expedited Interconnection Track operational by August 2026. Connect-and-Manage framework subordinates large-load growth to curtailment ahead of pre-emergency Demand Response.
PJM Board letter (Jan 16, 2026), p. 4 and Summary Table p. 7
Verbatim from PJM Board letter: “the incremental demand associated with such load growth would be subject to curtailment prior to the deployment of pre-emergency Demand Response.”
CAISO does not study load interconnections — those are retail-tariff functions under the connecting utility (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E). CAISO is developing parallel technical requirements (ride-through, ramp, telemetry, dynamic modeling).
CHILLS revisions refiled February 10, 2026, Docket ER26-1323-000; target effective date July 1, 2026. Maximum 7-year bridge term, non-firm service, lower priority than firm NITS.
Large Load framework triggers September 1, 2026. Defines Large Load as >50 MW total capacity at a single site, or +25 MW expansion of an existing >50 MW load.
MISO Large Load Working Group; Workshop presentation Jan 30, 2026
48 large-load proposals totaling ~12 GW in queue as of December 31, 2025 (up from 6 projects in 2022). Current interconnection studies trigger at ≥10 MW at ≥115 kV or ≥80 MW <115 kV.
New York PSC opened Case 26-E-0045 (“Energize NY Development”) on February 12, 2026, modernizing interconnection policy for load-intensive facilities under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
Senate Bill 6 signed by Governor Abbott on June 20, 2025. Mandates remote-disconnect equipment and curtailment participation for new ≥75 MW loads after December 31, 2025.
Texas Senate Bill 6, 89th Legislature (capitol.texas.gov)
SCC approved GS-5 data center rate class November 25, 2025 (Case PUR-2025-00058). Applies to new GS-5 contracts on or after January 1, 2027. Trigger: customer >25 MW with monthly load factor >75%.
Virginia State Corporation Commission, Case PUR-2025-00058
TVA board voted February 11, 2026 to add 150 MW to xAI’s Memphis allowance — roughly doubling it. Same decision cycle reversed previously planned closures of the Kingston (2027) and Cumberland (2028) coal plants.
Verbatim stipulation: “downward pressure of at least $8.50 per month to the typical residential customer using an average of 1,000 kWh per month for the years 2029, 2030 and 2031.”
North & South Carolina — Duke Clean Transition Tariff
Claim
Primary source
Document / URL
~6 GW data center pipeline in Duke Carolinas territory. Duke Energy Progress NC rate case filed October 2025; Duke Energy Carolinas NC rate case filed November 20, 2025.
Oregon: amendment to omnibus enterprise-zone legislation (SB/HB 4084, 2026 session) temporarily excluded data centers from expanded 10-year tax exemption.
Washington ESSB 6231 (signed by Gov. Ferguson) repeals sales and use tax exemption on replacement and refurbished data center equipment, effective July 1, 2026.
OCP ORv3 HPR (High Power Rack) 5.5 kW PSU shelf — the design used in NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and Blackwell-class racks — published input voltage window: 180 to 305 VAC.
PJM 2026/27 BRA cleared at the FERC-approved cap of $329.17/MW-day across the entire footprint (a record at the time of clearing; subsequently exceeded by the 2027/28 BRA).
APS large-customer load commitments approaching 13.1 GW (against an actual 2025 system peak of ~8.6 GW; system peak forecast ~11.4 GW by 2031 and ~13 GW by 2038).
If you reference this SAVRN piece in your own research, op-ed, white paper, or trade-press writing, please use one of the citation formats below. One-click copy.
Chicago
Harris, Chad Everett. "The Quiet Rewrite: Every US Grid Operator Is Rebuilding the Rules for AI Data Centers." SAVRN, May 11, 2026. https://savrn.com/ai-data-center-regulation-quiet-rewrite/.
APA
Harris, C. E. (2026, May 11). The Quiet Rewrite: Every US Grid Operator Is Rebuilding the Rules for AI Data Centers. SAVRN. https://savrn.com/ai-data-center-regulation-quiet-rewrite/
BibTeX
@misc{savrn_quiet_rewrite_2026,
author = {Harris, Chad Everett},
title = {{The Quiet Rewrite: Every US Grid Operator Is Rebuilding the Rules for AI Data Centers}},
publisher = {SAVRN},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://savrn.com/ai-data-center-regulation-quiet-rewrite/},
note = {Accessed: }
}
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