Texas hit pause on the biggest new-load queue in the country. Now everybody wants to know what survives in Batch Zero. Here’s how we got here: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Aug. 3 memo temporarily halted ERCOT’s first batch study for large loads and called for a comprehensive verification and audit of data centers before energization. ERCOT moved that verification to the front of the interconnection-study process and is seeking PUC good-cause exceptions to the Batch Zero timelines. This is Power Grid Daily. ERCOT’s clock is running, MISO’s going after generators that miss their dates, and the transmission bill just got bigger—so let’s start in Texas. Here's RTO Insider:
ERCOT officials have set a December target to complete Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request to verify and audit data centers and crypto miners seeking to interconnect to the grid. At the same time, they have been unable to say how the pause in validating the large loads will affect their original timeline.
ERCOT’s Batch Zero audit now targets December for verification, and the September launch is off the table. ERCOT is still holding to an April 2027 completion date, but it doesn’t have a schedule that supports it. They’re hoping verification runs through most of 2026 while staff somehow does enough background work to avoid the same delay. That’s a very optimistic critical path. Pablo Vegas put the risk plainly: projects can fall out if financing or development milestones require movement. A queue position that can’t advance isn’t much collateral. And Batch Zero is supposed to sort giant data-center and crypto loads. If the applicants are real, they’ll survive scrutiny. If they aren’t, the delay may be the most useful part of the study. This one's from RTO Insider:
In its ruling, FERC sided with the transmission owners, finding that the OPA did not meet the requirements for a formal challenge under formula rate protocols and failed to raise “serious doubt about the prudence of actual costs of asset condition projects included in the 2023 annual update.” The commission wrote that the OPA failed to challenge any “actual costs and expenditures,” one of the requirements for a formal challenge.
FERC handed Eversource and National Grid the win because Maine’s OPA challenged the project logic without tying it closely enough to actual costs in the 2023 annual update. Under formula-rate protocols, that distinction decides the case. And the underlying argument was hardly frivolous: competing estimates for how long transmission equipment lasts can shift a replacement decision by years and move customer bills by plenty. But an evidentiary hearing needs a project-by-project cost trail, not just a plausible concern. The $303 million added to New England’s asset-condition list is exactly why consumer advocates wanted those records opened up. FERC didn’t bless every 2022 investment on the merits; it found that OPA hadn’t cleared the formal challenge threshold. It’s a brutal procedural lesson: if you think a transformer replacement was premature, bring the condition data and tie it to the project’s actual costs. Otherwise, the utility gets to call it asset management and move on. RTO Insider, with Amanda Durish Cook:
Emma O’Neil, of MISO’s market design team, said MISO wants to assign a “zero availability” to offline resources that log in to up their lead times 48 hours or less before known risky periods. The unavailability mark would mean the resource takes a hit to its capacity accreditation. MISO intends to make a FERC filing in October requesting a Dec. 1 effective date.
Twenty-nine combustion turbines were ahead of MISO’s Jan. 24 emergency, and owners were logging in to lengthen their start times? If the unit needs more time, fine—declare it before the cold snap is bearing down on the control room. MISO’s proposed consequence is straightforward: change that lead time within 48 hours of a known risk period, and you get zero availability for accreditation. You don’t collect capacity value for capability you withdrew when the system needed it. Some stakeholders call zero tolerance harsh. A turbine that was supposedly a 24-hour resource and suddenly needs longer during an emergency has already made the choice for everybody else. The October FERC filing targets Dec. 1, but the accreditation impact lands in the 2028/29 planning year. That gives owners time to clean up their declarations—and gives MISO a record to enforce. Here's RTO Insider:
The RTO wound up settling for a 24.74% cost increase — resetting a baseline cost estimate from $970 million to $1.21 billion — for the 345-kV Iron Range-Benton County-Big Oaks project, one of the long-range transmission projects included in MISO’s $10 billion portfolio from 2022. That portfolio now stands closer to $11 billion.
MISO reset Iron Range-Benton County-Big Oaks from $970 million to $1.21 billion—just under its 25% variance threshold, at 24.74%. That’s an awfully precise place to land when the developers had already put nearly $1.4 billion on the table. The Minnesota PUC moved the route to co-locate on existing rights-of-way. Sensible siting choice—but redraw a 345-kV line after the estimate, and the construction assumptions all get repriced. MISO says Great River Energy and Minnesota Power have actionable cost-control steps. Fine. The bill is still roughly $240 million higher for a project inside a portfolio that’s moved from $10 billion toward $11 billion. “Proceeding to construction” is where those commitments meet transformer orders, steel invoices, and actual crews. A 24.74% increase can be managed on paper; the route still has to get built. Here's RTO Insider:
Ultimately, it disqualified 11 resources for the remainder of the 2025/26 planning year, from Jan. 25 to May 31. MISO said it disqualified resources due to businesses cutting back on volume or closing, lack of awareness of a duty to perform because a change in ownership of a business, or simple nonperformance when an LMR wasn’t excused for planned maintenance or for a force majeure event.
Two-point-eight gigawatts of accredited demand response zeroed out during MISO’s Jan. 24 emergency. That’s a very expensive way to discover the factory you’re counting on has closed. MISO reviewed 33 participants managing 187 resources and disqualified 11 through May 31. But that count is almost beside the point: capacity that cleared in the auction was unavailable when subzero weather and forced outages made it valuable. And the reasons are painfully operational: some sites cut production, others changed hands, and some just didn’t perform. If an aggregator doesn’t know a site changed hands, it has no business selling that site’s emergency curtailment. MISO says those resources were compensated to stand by. That performance obligation has to survive a closed business, a new owner, and the day the grid actually calls. If you’re enjoying Power Grid Daily, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help people find the show, and your support helps us keep bringing you the daily briefing.
What we’re watching: ERCOT is targeting December to complete verification and audits of data centers and crypto miners seeking to interconnect. MISO plans to file its proposed lead-time restriction at FERC in October, with a Dec. 1 effective date.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at anything you’d like to explore further. That’s Power Grid Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.