PJM Interconnection (PJM) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create a conditional reliability framework for major new electricity users, including data centers. Filed on August 13, the proposal would allow big new facilities to enter service before sufficient new capacity is available to support their demand.
In return, any portion of demand not backed by qualifying new capacity could be curtailed before other pre-emergency demand-response measures.. PJM defines a “New Large Load” as a large load that enters service or adds incremental demand after June 1, 2027. A Large Load is end-use customer demand with a cumulative peak of at least 50 MW at a single electrical site.
Affiliated facilities within a one-mile radius can be treated as a single electrical site under the proposed rules.. New Loads Face Earlier Cuts. Under the proposal, load-serving entities (LSEs) serving New Large Loads must designate qualifying new capacity equal to or greater than the load’s peak demand.
New Large Loads (50 MW or more) are not automatically subject to Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS). Only the portion of demand not covered by qualifying new capacity would be subject to reductions during specified reliability conditions, and only before PJM calls for Pre-Emergency Load Management Response.
A load with enough qualifying capacity to cover its registered peak would not face IRAS.. Related:PJM Issued First Backup-Generator Warnings During Heat Wave. PJM says the arrangement preserves state authority over retail load-reduction programs.
LSEs serving eligible loads would receive PJM’s reduction directive, while applicable distributors and state authorities would determine how the reduction is implemented. The filing leaves implementation details to state-regulated retail arrangements, including how a distributor would require, measure, and compensate a load reduction.
PJM has said compensation for directed reductions would be subject to a FERC-approved rate and state jurisdiction.. PJM has requested an Oct. 12, 2026, effective date for the tariff revisions..
BYONC Provides a Path Out of IRAS. New Large Loads could reduce or eliminate their IRAS exposure through Bring Your Own New Capacity (BYONC). Qualifying resources can include new generation, certain generation uprates, surplus interconnection service, certain repowered resources, fuel conversions, and storage.
Certain demand resources and distributed energy resource aggregations can also qualify. Allocated Reliability Backstop Procurement (RBP) Unforced Capacity (UCAP) could cover some or all of a New Large Load’s capacity requirement, reducing its IRAS exposure.. Related:PJM Monitor: AI Data Center Growth Reshaping Power Markets.
A load could use a combination of BYONC, RBP UCAP, and IRAS to cover any remaining requirement.. RPM Won’t Count Unsupported Load. PJM also proposes to change how certain New Large Loads affect its capacity auctions under the Reliability Pricing Model (RPM).
Beginning with the 2029/30 delivery year, excluded New Large Load amounts would be reflected in PJM’s Variable Resource Requirement (VRR) curves used to determine capacity procurement. The proposed RTO curve would subtract the excluded New Large Load from the PJM Region Reliability Requirement..
In practical terms, PJM would not procure additional RPM capacity for incremental New Large Loads excluded under the proposed rules. Those loads would be responsible for securing their own qualifying capacity rather than adding that demand to what PJM procures in RPM.. The Registry Becomes a FERC Dispute.
PJM would establish a Large Load Registry to support IRAS and other large-load programs. Schedule 11 would require information including a load’s location, peak demand, ramp schedule, telemetry specifications, BYONC, RBP UCAP, backup generation, and contracts or service agreements with its LSE..
The Independent Market Monitor (IMM), Monitoring Analytics, has challenged whether the proposed tariff requires enough evidence behind those entries.. Related:White House Warns PJM to Reform Grid Governance ‘Before It Is Too Late’. Joseph Bowring, the Market Monitor’s executive director, told Data Center Knowledge that the tariff does not require data centers themselves to provide supporting evidence for the information submitted about their loads.
He also wants a specific validation schedule. PJM’s proposal says it would update the registry “periodically,” while separately requiring parties to promptly report changes.. Bowring said the tariff should require ongoing validation, supporting evidence, and updates at least monthly or whenever a load’s status changes..
The tariff also says registry information “may be available” to state commissions, transmission owners, electric distributors, LSEs, the IMM, and FERC. Bowring said the Market Monitor should have explicit access rather than being included in a list of institutions that may receive the information..
PJM’s filing includes telemetry specifications as part of the registry data. The issue is also relevant to how data centers respond to grid disturbances, as seen when more than 3 GW of Northern Virginia data center load transferred to backup power after a transmission-line fault.
Bowring said PJM should make clear whether covered loads will provide real-time telemetry, including customers taking less-than-full transmission service.. PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields told Data Center Knowledge that PJM has enhanced its large-load vetting. Bowring disputed that assessment.
“We have not seen any evidence of that,” he said.. Shields said utilities now provide PJM with additional information, including contract status, to establish firm commitments. Only firm loads with an Electric Service Obligation (ESO) or Construction Commitment (CC) are counted for capacity-market purposes, he said.
Later-year requests remain part of regional transmission planning but are categorized as non-firm for capacity-market purposes. Shields also said PJM is working to add state commission review and an independent third-party review of its data center forecast.. Persistence Analytics Group has separately pressed FERC for stronger requirements around the evidence supporting registry entries.
“The field tells you the value,” said Neil Osnato, founder of Persistence Analytics Group. “Provenance tells you why you should believe the value.”. Parties Enter the Case.
PJM’s proposal did not emerge from stakeholder consensus. None of the 11 IRAS concepts put to an advisory vote in June received the two-thirds support required for approval, although PJM’s Board directed the filing.. The FERC docket has since drawn a broad cross-section of participants:.
The Independent Market Monitor on market-rule compliance and market-design concerns.. The Maryland Public Service Commission on Maryland ratepayer interests.. The Illinois Attorney General on consumer costs..
The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel on New Jersey ratepayer interests.. The PJM Industrial Customer Coalition representing large commercial, institutional, and industrial electricity users.. The PJM Power Providers Group on wholesale-market participants..
The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) on competitive power suppliers.. EDF Power Solutions on PJM project development.. Enchanted Rock on data centers and other high-load customers..
The motions to intervene do not establish substantive positions on PJM’s proposal.. In its July 2026 Board decision, PJM cited an expectation of roughly 70 GW of new large-load demand by 2038, alongside approximately 15 GW of generation retirements since 2022.. FERC’s Combined Notice sets Sept.
3 at 5 p.m. ET as the deadline for comments and motions to intervene. IRAS exposure for eligible New Large Loads would begin June 1, 2027, while the VRR changes would begin with the 2029/30 delivery year.
