The California Independent System Operator’s board has approved a package of measures to connect large electricity loads to the grid faster, the first such proposal among United States regional grid operators to clear its board. CAISO will file the proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by November 16, answering FERC’s June order directing six grid operators to show their procedures can accommodate large loads without harming reliability or shifting costs to other customers.
The centrepiece is flexible interim load interconnection: a large load, defined as an end user at a single site with peak demand of 50 megawatts or more, can connect before the network upgrades it needs are finished, and accept enforceable operating restrictions based on grid conditions until those upgrades arrive, then move to firm service. Around it sit cost protection rules requiring tariff terms that prevent new loads shifting their costs onto existing customers, coordination and study timelines of 60 to 90 days for transmission owners, a monthly review window for transmission additions outside the regular planning cycle, and operational requirements including hourly forecasts, telemetry and the ability to disconnect large loads remotely for reliability.
Colocated generation gets its own treatment: on site generation serving only the facility is exempt from an ISO study, generation injecting into the grid must complete one, and colocated loads must be metered independently of offsetting generation so they pay ancillary service charges. Datacenter Dynamics puts data centres already connected to CAISO’s transmission network at about 8 gigawatts combined, including Silicon Valley.
The trade the proposal formalises is the one now being negotiated across the industry: speed in exchange for flexibility and visibility. A data centre that accepts curtailment, telemetry and remote disconnection gets power years earlier than the upgrade queue would allow; the grid gets a load it can see hourly and shed in an emergency. Whether FERC accepts the balance, and what the other five operators file, decides whether this becomes the national model.