FERC는 PJM의 데이터센터 계획 중 일부를 승인하고 나머지는 기각했다.

FERC has approved PJM Interconnection's proposal to establish a Large Load Registry of data centers and other customers that demand large amounts of electricity. However, it has denied PJM's proposal to also establish an Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS), which would have created a path for Large Loads that do not provide their own power to reduce their demand when the grid is strained to dangerous levels. PJM may try again on this topic.

PJM filed its 435-page proposal in August. It drew dozens of responses from various entities, including utilities, states in its 13-state region, members of Congress, power customers such as Google, and consumer groups such as the Data Center Coalition.

FERC's order spans 58 pages and details the proposal and the responses for and against it.

PJM told FERC that it hosts the largest concentration of data center load in the world and predicts load growth of 32 gigawatts (GW) from 2024 to 2030, with 30 GW of that coming from data centers. PJM said that while its generation capacity has increased, the capacity shortfall has grown even more.

FERC accepted PJM's new definition of a Large Load: a customer with a cumulative peak load of 50 megawatts (MW) or more at either a single site or at multiple affiliated sites within a one-mile radius. The commission found that the definition "is just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential." It distinguishes between larger loads, where PJM needs visibility to ensure system reliability, and smaller loads that do not raise the same concerns.

FERC rejected opponents' proposals to exclude manufacturing facilities and include only data centers, noting that both have essentially the same effects on the grid.

The Large Load Registry is intended to improve load growth forecasting, support the study and provision of new transmission services, and allow the registry to be shared with authorized agencies and organizations. FERC agreed with PJM's reasoning on this matter.

However, FERC denied PJM's proposal to also create a definition of "New Large Load": a new Large Load that would go into service after PJM's proposed target implementation date of June 1, 2027, or an existing customer whose incremental growth would meet the 50 MW threshold after that date. FERC rejected the definition in part because it is central to the portion of PJM's proposal that it also rejected, and because it does not protect existing customers who already have Large Loads and add more demand. FERC denied this without prejudice, so PJM can readdress it in a new filing.

Under the IRAS proposal, PJM would have required Load Serving Entities, which sell power to end-users, to ensure that New Large Loads supply "Bring Your Own New Capacity" (BYONC) to the grid. In the event of a shortfall, Electric Distributors could reduce the demand of New Large Loads without a BYONC arrangement. Many protesters argued that the proposal intrudes on states' authority by directly regulating retail customers and compels states to implement a federal program.

FERC said that aspects of PJM's plan present an impermissible intrusion on retail rate regulation and exceed its legal authority, since FERC may regulate wholesale rates but not retail sales, and New Large Loads would be retail customers. While PJM argued that its plan does not discriminate because New Large Loads are a new class of load that poses specific challenges to the transmission system, FERC said PJM had not provided sufficient evidence to support that claim, noting that PJM has historically treated existing and new loads in the same manner. FERC also said PJM had not provided sufficient evidence for why New Large Loads should be treated differently under its BYONC proposal, and encouraged PJM to further justify its reasoning on these points.

FERC Commissioner David Rosner provided additional insight in a short, separate concurrence. "To be clear, in an emergency, data centers not serving critical functions should be shut off before ordinary customers," he said. "Homes, hospitals, and schools should never be curtailed before data centers."

"We need state regulators to establish clear rules for which customers should be curtailed first when circumstances require it," he continued. "And we need PJM to be ready to adjust their operations to this evolving paradigm. But such measures should only be taken when necessary to keep the system reliable, after voluntary demand response resources have been exhausted."