MISO · 1 signal |
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| Spearmint's second permitted project in Minnesota confirms that the state's PUC process, while slower than some markets, is functioning and repeatable. At $457M installed cost for 150MW/600MWh, the capital intensity is in line with current market conditions. Adjacency to the Glenworth Substation is a genuine siting advantage at this scale. |
| A $12B debt sale to fund a single near-gigawatt campus in El Paso, layered on top of a $40B acquisition close, makes BlackRock the most consequential single actor in U.S. data center infrastructure right now. The El Paso location matters for ERCOT: a load of this scale at the western edge of the grid is a significant reliability event for a market that already struggles with west Texas transmission constraints. Anyone holding generation or storage interconnection rights in the El Paso load zone should be re-underwriting those positions today. |
| Castro County community opposition to Intersect Power's data center is worth tracking. Texas rural communities are increasingly organized around water and land concerns, and Castro County is in the High Plains where groundwater depletion is already a political flashpoint. This does not kill the project, but it will pressure the permitting timeline and could force a water sourcing redesign. |
| El Paso tightening zoning rules for data centers the same week a $12B debt sale lands for a near-gigawatt Meta campus in that city is notable timing. The new rules will govern future developments, not the BlackRock-Meta project, which is presumably already entitled. But any developer looking at El Paso for a second or third campus just got a harder permitting environment. |
| Five gigawatts of UPS capacity is a supply-chain bet, not an engineering footnote. Crusoe is pre-contracting equipment across its pipeline before the projects are built, which is the right play when transformer and battery lead times are measured in years. A buffered load profile is a materially different grid interaction than a raw GPU ramp, and other large AI developers should be watching this structure closely. |
| The DC MALPICA proposal offers a useful European data point: 300MW of on-site generation in a market where grid interconnection timelines are measured in years is not an experiment, it is the only viable path to a near-term in-service date. The developers have not confirmed the generation technology. U.S. developers watching this should note that the same logic applies in constrained domestic markets. |
| The DOC investigation into Ethiopian solar cell producers is another iteration of the same circumvention pattern that has run through Southeast Asia for years. If Toyo and Origin lose this, the effective panel supply available to U.S. utility-scale solar developers narrows further. First Solar benefits directly; everyone buying silicon modules should re-examine supply chain exposure now, before any preliminary determination. |
| SRP's Marigold proposal is a textbook integrated resource move: co-locate solar, storage, and gas on a single site with a new substation and four miles of 230-kV transmission lines, reducing transmission build risk while preserving firm capacity. The board vote in September is the real milestone. At 675MW of gas headroom alongside 600MW solar and 400MW storage, SRP is building to serve growing demand in Maricopa and Pinal counties without pretending that solar alone closes the reliability gap. |
| WIRAB targeting a large load interconnection framework by end of 2026 matters because the Western Interconnection has no unified queue structure and each balancing authority handles large load requests differently. A published template does not bind anyone, but it establishes a baseline that state PUCs and utilities will start referencing in tariff proceedings. Developers active in CAISO, NV Energy, or Pacific Northwest markets should engage this process now rather than wait for the final document. |
EL26-67-000 · PJM · cost allocation · 3 filings FERC initiates Section 206 proceeding against PJM, all commissioners concurring separately |
ER26-1323-002 · SPP · large load SPP compliance filing for conditional high-impact large load service tariff provisions Filed 2026-07-06 20260706-5174 › |
ER26-2698-000 · NYISO · queue reform NYISO supplemental filing on interconnection process improvements affecting queue procedures Filed 2026-07-08 20260708-5191 › |
RM21-17-000 · MISO · cost allocation · 3 filings FERC extends time on major MISO regional transmission planning and cost allocation rulemaking. |
ER26-2577-000 · NYISO · queue reform FERC accepts NYISO interconnection procedure revisions with commissioner concurrence Filed 2026-07-20 20260720-3065 › |
EL25-49-002 · PJM · large load FERC issues rehearing/clarification order on PJM proceeding, likely large-load or cost policy matter. Filed 2026-06-18 20260618-3103 › |
ER26-2514-000 · SPP · queue reform FERC accepts SPP generator interconnection procedure revisions to Attachment V tariff. Filed 2026-06-29 20260629-3054 › |
ER26-2771-000 · PJM · queue reform FERC denied Chestnut Run Energy LLC's waiver request in PJM (ER26-2771), a process-integrity ruling on interconnection queue timing. Filed 2026-07-02 20260702-3059 › |