HD Market Scorecard · Western United States
WECC Large-Load Interconnection Grade
Western Electricity Coordinating Council · As of September 14, 2026
WECC
C+–
Draft final slipped to Sep 24; Board still Oct 28. No tariff or time-to-power move.
Opinion index · not a third-party rating
WECC is not a single interconnection queue. It is a coordinating council over a set of balancing authorities, of which CAISO is the one FERC ordered on June 18, 2026 to justify or rewrite large-load and co-location rules. The grade is C+: pockets of availability, transmission as the binding constraint.
Unlike ERCOT, there is no single Batch Zero process to pause, and unlike PJM there is no monitor figure pinning capacity cost on data centers. The weekly scorecard has held because nothing in the West has moved time-to-power or tariff climate by a notch. That is a description of the tape, not a claim that Western siting is easy.
What the grade is pricing
Forward prices and congestion vary sharply by pocket. Uncommitted capacity exists on paper in places the transmission system cannot yet deliver. CAISO's 206 response will set co-location and large-load tariff treatment for the most constrained part of the interconnect. Until that filing is a rule, the West is Conditional.
A Western site with a real transmission path and a utility that will sign is a different underwriting than a queue position that assumes the path will appear. The grade is the average of those two facts.
Full board, weights, and citation format: HD Market Scorecard. How the 35/25/20/10/10 weights work: methodology.
Grade History
Published changes to WECC, most recent first. Grades held since July 16, 2026 are unchanged from inception.
No published notch since inception — WECC has held at C+.