Texas just cleared its first 765-kV lines. Now comes the expensive part: showing the loads are real enough to justify them. If you're just joining us, FERC's June 18 Section 206 show-cause orders gave six RTOs and ISOs some explaining to do—or required them to revise how large loads connect to the transmission system. The proceeding covers data centers, manufacturing facilities, and other major users. ISO-NE has already outlined a BYOG filing path, while CAISO is developing large-load forecasting data requirements through its straw proposal process. This is Power Grid Daily. Texas approved the routes, Delaware wrote the customer rules, and Washington may have just changed the equipment clock. Let's start in ERCOT. We're staying with this story: FERC large-load interconnection show-cause orders. Follow the show and you won't miss what comes next. RTO Insider writes:
Texas regulators have approved the applications and routes for the state’s first two 765-kV transmission lines, ignoring calls from lawmakers and landowners to delay or deny the permits. During an Aug. 28 open meeting, the Public Utility Commission accepted proposed decisions for both Oncor projects, which make up the first of three import paths into the Permian Basin.
Following up on the Texas 765-kV fight we aired Friday: regulators approved the first two Oncor routes. That clears a major gate for the first Permian import path—429 miles, $3.95 billion, and a 2029 energization target. The target is the operative word. A 765-kV build needs specialized transformers, breakers, and substation work on a schedule that doesn't care how quickly the PUC voted. The commission found need in the contested record, despite earlier criticism of ERCOT's load forecasts. But this is only the first of three planned import paths, so those forecasts are about to face two more tests. And Gleeson's language on accommodating landowners matters. Avoiding a bisected property makes sense, but it can mean route changes, redesign work, and a calendar that starts slipping before steel ever shows up. Here's McGuireWoods:
On Aug. 26, 2026, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14420 declaring a national emergency related to foreign-produced equipment used in the U.S. bulk-power system. The order prohibits transactions “initiated after the date of this order” involving certain foreign-produced bulk-power system equipment that is connected to a Covered Foreign Entity and that poses a specified national security risk.
EO 14420 turns procurement risk into a national-emergency issue. It covers inverters, BESS, UPS gear, and their software—the equipment developers need to lock down for 2027 through 2029 CODs. And DOE doesn't publish the implementing rules until December 24. So companies are being told to screen suppliers before the government has fully defined the screen. Right. A 765-kV line can have commission approval—as we just heard in Texas—and still run into a brutal equipment clock. Add possible country-of-origin reviews, ownership reviews, maybe replacement conditions for installed gear, and 2029 starts to look optimistic. And the exposure goes beyond new orders. DOE can impose monitoring, isolation, disconnection, replacement, or even removal conditions on certain equipment installed before August 26. That's a very different term sheet from commercial operation achieved. Here's RTO Insider:
MISO is concentrating on creating customer protections to ensure that the transmission projects needed to interconnect large loads aren’t involuntarily paid for by other transmission customers. It’s one of the directives MISO needs to fulfill from FERC ’s June 2026 show-cause orders to grid operators, requiring improvements to how large loads connect to the transmission system.
The FERC large-load interconnection docket is now down to MISO tariff design, with cost-shift protections at center stage. By Nov. 16, MISO needs more than a principle—it needs an agreement spelling out who posts cash, who recovers it, and what happens when the promised load never arrives. “Minimum financial contribution” is encouraging, but minimum relative to what? A data center can request transmission sized for a huge ramp, then show up late or run well below that demand—and the transformer and line costs are already baked in. Hunter Blair is describing a pro forma cost-recovery agreement among MISO, transmission owners, and the customer taking service for the large load. Good. Put the obligation in a standardized contract, make the upgrade assignment public, and stop asking incumbent customers to finance someone else's speculative growth. And MISO stakeholders want to go beyond FERC's floor because they've seen where floors get you. If the customer contribution is refundable too easily, or the demand test is soft, the bill still migrates outward—just with more paperwork. From RTO Insider:
Developers must bring their own clean power if they want to build data centers or other large-load facilities in Delaware. This and other measures form “the most comprehensive ratepayer and resident protections on data centers in our nation,” Gov. Matt Meyer (D) said as he signed four bills into law Aug 26.
Delaware set a low trigger for computing infrastructure: 30 megawatts of monthly peak demand. At that size, a developer isn't arriving with a vague growth forecast. It's entering a separate regulatory lane. The key language is curtailability during PJM reliability events. Good—now spell out the interruption hours, notice period, penalties, and verification in the PSC-approved service agreement. Otherwise, it's a nice phrase for a crisis nobody wants to honor. The clean-power requirement and separate rate structure go straight at cost socialization. Delaware is making the large-load customer show its financing and operating commitments before ordinary customers inherit a network-upgrade bill. New Jersey is talking reporting and community-benefit agreements; Delaware went further, into the service contract. That's where the grid finds out whether a data center is actually flexible—or just very enthusiastic about being flexible. Have feedback, story ideas, or a correction? Email us at powergriddaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We read every note, and it helps us make Power Grid Daily better.
Watch MISO's Nov. 16 deadline to respond to FERC's large-load show-cause order. DOE's implementing rules for Executive Order 14420 are due Dec. 24, 2026. And Oncor still expects the Glen Rose-to-Drill Hole 765-kV line to be energized by 2029.
Links to every story are in the show notes if you want to dig in. That's Power Grid Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.