On 2 August 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it will convene a Commissioner-led technical conference in Docket No. AD24-11-000 to discuss emerging issues related to the co-location of large loads at generating facilities. This announcement follows a 16 July 2024 inquiry from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC).

In the committee letter, the Committee Chairs pressed FERC for details on new electricity demand growth from large loads, including data centers and industrial processes. The Committee specifically asked questions about the potential grid impacts of co-location of large generators with large loads and touched on challenging issues facing the grid to accommodate large load growth. FERC and state regulators are already grappling with new large load challenges in response to growth in data centers for artificial intelligence and a manufacturing renaissance in some industrial sectors.

FERC’s technical conference notice makes it clear that matters pending before FERC will not be discussed during the conference. One such docket is Docket No. ER24-2172-000 concerning amendments to a PJM interconnection agreement that increases the capacity of co-located load and related changes. On the same day that FERC announced the technical conference, FERC staff issued a deficiency letter in that docket requesting additional information from the applicant.

FERC will soon issue a supplemental notice with a date and time of the technical conference, as well as further details regarding the agenda and any changes in logistics. The technical conference will be open to the public. Advance registration is not required and there is no fee for attendance. The conference will be transcribed and webcast.