HD Intelligence Desk · October 12, 2026

FERC Rejects PJM's Interim Curtailment Service. The Registry Takes Effect

Published October 12, 2026

What Happened

On October 9, 2026, FERC issued 197 FERC ¶ 61,019 in Docket No. ER26-3515-000. The order accepts PJM's definition of Large Load, end-use customer load with a cumulative peak of 50 MW or greater at a single electrical site, with affiliated facilities inside a one-mile radius counted as one site, and a Large Load Registry, effective October 12, 2026. It rejects the rest of the August 13 filing: Interim Resource Adequacy Service, Bring Your Own New Capacity, the exclusion of Eligible New Large Load from the variable resource requirement curve beginning with the 2029/2030 delivery year, and the definition of New Large Load, the last without prejudice. PJM must submit, within 30 days, tariff records that keep the Large Load definition and the registry and remove New Large Load and the IRAS and BYONC language.

Why It Matters

We hold PJM at D. Time-to-power is 35% of the grade: the 2027/2028 Base Residual Auction cleared 6,623 MW short of the reliability requirement, the 2028/2029 auction cleared 6,831 MW short, and the September 29 order still suspends Reliability Backstop Procurement to February 28, 2027. The registry gives PJM a record of loads at or above 50 MW. The Commission finds that parts of the filed IRAS tariff appear to place obligations directly on Eligible New Large Loads and to set a retail rate, and that PJM had not shown the different treatment of network service for those loads was not unduly discriminatory. Commissioner Rosner concurred that, in an emergency, data centers not serving critical functions should be shut off before homes, hospitals, and schools, and only after voluntary demand response. On October 7 the Department of Energy intervened in Docket Nos. ER26-3380-000 and EL26-108-000 and urged PJM to file a revised backstop tariff under section 205 on or before October 29. PJM told Utility Dive it will hold a special Members Committee meeting on October 22 and file by October 29. Trend stays down. The same shock is not cut twice.

Sources

  1. 01Order Accepting Tariff Revisions in Part and Rejecting Tariff Revisions in Part, 197 FERC ¶ 61,019 — FERC, Oct 9 2026
  2. 02Notice of Intervention and Statement of Position, Docket Nos. ER26-3380-000 and EL26-108-000 — U.S. Department of Energy, Oct 7 2026
  3. 03DOE presses PJM on ratepayer protections from large load costs — Utility Dive, Oct 8 2026