Power & Sites · United States

Power system plans to meet large-load demand miss near-term solutions: analysts

Credited to Utility Dive · utilitydive.com · 3h ago

Photograph · Utility Dive

Major work by regional planners is focused on flexible access to existing transmission. Some say greater emphasis on advanced transmission technologies can quickly create room for large loads.

Power system planners — including utilities, grid operators and regulators — are racing to develop new ways to bring large loads online faster, but they are often overlooking solutions that could increase capacity quickly while long-term, structural remedies are being negotiated and implemented, analysts and stakeholders told Utility Dive.

Shortages of skilled labor and grid equipment are slowing the buildout of new generation to meet rising demand from AI data centers, while market reforms must go through a regulatory process that can be prolonged.

In response to directives from federal regulators and the White House, planners working to address load growth are focused on innovative integrations of large loads and generation to create more transmission availability.

But some experts say there should also be greater focus on interventions like high-capacity conductors and advanced transmission technologies that are more cost effective and can quickly create room for new large loads.

Grid operators under pressure

On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued “show cause” orders to six system operators directing them to submit plans for speeding the interconnection of large loads. A ll six have requested more time to develop processes for bringing these loads online without passing the costs on to other customers or threatening system reliability.

FERC is not the only official body pushing power system operators to hurry up. The White House is leaning on tech companies and utilities to help the country “win the AI race” while adhering to a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge to make hyperscalers pay for the infrastructure needed to serve them. President Donald Trump has also taken executive actions declaring infrastructure planning an urgent priority.

But this pressure campaign cannot change the underlying market and regulatory structures that determine who builds what where. Many large loads are waiting to interconnect while Congress debates proposed legislation that would affect them.

Meanwhile, local governments and states are going their own way, with some imposing new vetting requirements or incentives, while others have proposed or enacted outright moratoria or pauses on new data center interconnections.

“The elements of Order 1920 showed the way, and large loads add the exclamation point on the need for new planning processes... But there has not been a complete rethink of utility planning yet.”

Director of Research and Policy, Grid Strategies

Given the increasing difficulty of bringing new data centers and new generation online, some in the industry say increasing the utilization of the transmission system can accommodate these loads more quickly.

Transmission investments are increasing, but most projects continue to be driven by reliability and asset renewal needs rather than load growth, according to FERC’s 2025 State of the Market report.

Large loads require a “shift from project-by-project upgrades to proactive and coordinated long-term planning,” according to a July report by the Energy Systems Integration Group and the Brattle Group.

The report, titled “Transmission Planning with Large Loads,” says a new framework is needed and must include load flexibility and allow for scenario-based, least-regrets planning.

It must also allow for the uncertainty in today’s load growth forecasts, said paper co-author Johannes Pfeifenberger, a principal with The Brattle Group.

That means including “fast and cost-effective near-term options that address speed to power,” like advanced carbon conductors with fiber sensing and analytics, “while longer-term transmission solutions are being planned and built,” he added.

Some see the potential for solutions to emerge from FERC Order 1920, which was issued in 2024 and overhauled long-term regional transmission planning. Most entities covered by Order 1920 began the process of filing their plans this year, with more compliance filings due in 2027.

The order could be useful in the era of large-load demand growth because it created a “robust framework” to address uncertainties from traditional generation retiring and new, variable resources coming online, said Zachary Zimmerman, Grid Strategies’ director of research and policy.

“The elements of Order 1920 showed the way, and large loads add the exclamation point on the need for new planning processes,” said Zimmerman. “But there has not been a complete rethink of utility planning yet.”

Southwest Power Pool sets an example

The Southwest Power Pool has emerged as a potential model for holistic grid planning — though its recently-approved Consolidated Planning Process, which merged its interconnection and transmission tracks, was in development before large-loads became the dominant concern in the electric power sector.

Nevertheless, the plan was praised by FERC officials and others. It is the right type of planning framework for today because it “explicitly brings different planning tracks together,” while other regions are only developing elements of coordination, ESIG said in its report.

SPP planners have felt a significantly greater sense of urgency since the surge in large loads began around 2025, said Natasha Henderson, the system operator’s senior director of strategic policy and grid innovation, and Casey Cathey, its vice president of engineering.

In addition to the Consolidated Planning Process, SPP has introduced several other pathways for large loads willing to make concessions for interconnection. In January, FERC approved SPP’s plan for interconnecting High Impact Large Loads, or HILL, and the associated High Impact Large Load Generation Assessment, or HILLGA.

Streamlined HILL 90-day interconnection studies will also apply to associated HILLGA interconnections if the associated new generation is within two substations and specifically support HILLs, Henderson said.

FERC has also approved SPP’s Conditional High Impact Large Load, or CHILL, process for interconnecting loads willing to be curtailed when transmission is inadequate, Henderson said. It is an approach to new loads that shares some similarities with ERCOT’s “connect and manage” process for generators that agree to curtailment to get online, she added.

SPP’s pending Price Adaptive Load Service, or PALS, under consideration at FERC is “true connect and manage,” Henderson said, because it does not require loads to be matched with generation or transmission. Under that plan, loads would face significant curtailment risk, she added.

SPP is also developing what may be the first regional Intermediate Planning Process, or IPP, said Cathey. It will accelerate speed to power with easily deployed upgrades, grid enhancing and advanced transmission technologies, reconductoring and load shedding to maximize reliability, he added.

Other grid operators have indicated they intend to take different approaches, mostly focused on trading load flexibility for speed of interconnection to create availability on existing transmission.

PJM embraces load flexibility

PJM Interconnection may see 70% of future U.S. data center development and, with costs spiking, it is under pressure from the region’s governors and legislators and from FERC to comply with the show cause orders, according to a brief from law firm White and Case.

PJM’s proposed long-term transmission planning reforms, as outlined in PJM’s June 30 response to a Dec. 2025 show cause order directing the grid operator to create new pathways for colocated load, are “a step in the right direction,” said Grid Strategies’ Zimmerman.

PJM proposed an Interim Resource Adequacy Service, or IRAS, that is also similar to the Texas connect and manage rules. Under PJM’s proposal, large loads could interconnect without new capacity but must, when called on, reduce load or switch to on-site resources.

In August, FERC granted PJM an extension until Nov. 16 to comply with regulators’ directives on large loads and colocation.

Batch Zero pushed Texas toward consolidated grid planning

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, though not FERC-jurisdictional, is also moving ahead on new processes, said Warren Lasher, president of Lasher Energy Consulting and a former ERCOT senior director of system planning.

In June, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved ERCOT’s “Batch Zero” processing — a system-wide analysis of large loads in the interconnection queue. That system-wide analysis led the system operator to a consolidated process that merged the Batch Zero review with the annual six-year transmission planning look-ahead, Lasher said.

The connect-and-manage interconnection process that ERCOT has been using for decades added a significant amount of new generation, Lasher said. During Batch Zero stakeholder discussions in 2025 and 2026, ERCOT decided to combine connect and manage with batch studies of flexible loads and loads that bring their own generation to expand conditional access to transmission, he said.

In that ongoing process, ERCOT also developed other interconnection tracks: the Withdrawal-Limited Private Use Network, WLPUN, and the Provisional Controllable Load Resource, or PCLR, according to a Batch Zero explainer published by the grid operator.

WLPUN allows large loads to use their own on-site generation to offset the amount of transmission capacity they need, allowing a faster interconnection. PCLR allows large loads faster interconnections if ERCOT can curtail their controllable load during local transmission constraints.

Batch Zero processing is on pause pending an audit of the queue at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott.

MISO reworks existing plans

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator is also rethinking how it plans infrastructure, but is reworking existing processes rather than creating new approaches from the ground up like SPP, said James Okullo, director of system planning with the Energy Systems Integration Group and a former MISO manager for strategic assessments.

Some of these changes can be seen in shorter study periods, such as the 90-day study approved as part of MISO’s Expedited Resource Addition Study, or ERAS, in July 2025, he said. MISO’s working group has also developed planning initiatives to address large loads like the Expedited Project Review process that will review proposed transmission projects every two months, Okullo said.

New planning scenarios will enable 120-day studies and a hotly debated Zero-injection Generator Interconnection Agreement to streamline approval for large loads with co-located generation, Okullo added.

Advanced transmission technologies a missing piece

Policymakers “now realize the new large load forecasts are real,” but “they are still not enabling the urgently needed short-term solutions,” said Theodore Paradise, chief policy and grid strategy officer for advanced powerline manufacturer CTC Global.

Advanced transmission technologies and high-capacity conductors can be deployed in 36 months or less to cut costs and in some cases double transmission capacity on a line, Paradise added, citing a recent ClearPath report.

Regional planners should be required to put advanced conductors and advanced transmission technologies in the planning process early on, because planning that only includes them as an afterthought misses their system-wide optimization value, Paradise said. At least six states have passed laws since 2024 requiring utilities to consider advanced transmission technologies.

Policymakers “now realize the new large load forecasts are real,” but “they are still not enabling the urgently needed short-term solutions,”.

Chief Policy and Grid Strategy Officer, CTC Global

“Using them can expand availability of existing transmission” and “lower customer costs,” Paradise said.

Advanced technologies are not being broadly integrated, despite work validating them by large utilities such as AEP in Texas, PPL in Pennsylvania and Southern California Edison, Okullo said. Existing production cost models and power flow simulations can model the new technologies and asset management practices are evolving for them, Okullo said.

“The urgency driven by large load growth means new transmission must be built and deploying advanced technologies in the process is the more efficient solution,” he added.

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Power & Sites · Europe

Google's €13bn data center buildout in Finland under investigation for 300-hectare forest removal

Credited to Data Center Dynamics · datacenterdynamics.com · 4h ago

Photograph · Data Center Dynamics

Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority requests reports from local municipalities

Google's data center projects in Finland are facing scrutiny after the company reportedly razed some 300 hectares of forest land prior to securing mandatory environmental impact assessments.

In mid-September, Finnish news service STT reported that the Finish Association for Nature Conservation said that it suspected that illegal logging had been carried out at Google's sites in Muhor and Kajaani.

On September 18, Finland's Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) requested reports from the municipality of Muhos, the city of Kajaani, and Tuike Finland Oy - the project manager - on the planned Google data center projects, their permits, and the measures taken in the areas.

According to reports, forestry works began months ago at the data center project sites, despite the environmental impact assessment of such works still being underway.

According to LVV, around 300 hectares of forest have been felled for the Muhos data center project. The agency notes: "Logging in a master plan area requires a landscape work permit in accordance with the Building Act, if the master plan so provides. Muhos has a partial master plan in force. In Kajaani, the partial master plan has been partially announced in force.

"The municipality of Muhos and the city of Kajaani have approved the local plans. In both municipalities, the local plans have been appealed to the administrative court, which is why a building ban is in force in the areas. The building ban in question requires a landscape work permit for landscape-changing measures, such as felling trees and landscape-changing earthworks, starting from the decision to approve the local plan. The municipal building control authority is responsible for monitoring the legality of the measures with regard to the Construction Act."

The LVV concludes that EIA procedures are coordinated by the agency itself, and that: "The issuance of a reasoned conclusion in the EIA procedure is a key document in the processing of the permits required for the projects."

In a statement sent to STT by Google, the company's communications manager, Michiel Sallaets, has denied any illegal forestry activities. Sallaets said that the logging has been done on land owned by Google "in full accordance with the requirements of the Forestry Act." He added that all potential profits from selective logging will be donated to local projects.

Another Google spokesperson, Sondre Ronander, told AFP: "We have conducted extensive nature surveys covering the entire area as part of the zoning and Environmental Impact Assessment processes, to ensure high-value nature zones within the sites have been protected during forestry works."

The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation has called for construction at the site to be halted, as has the Safety and Chemicals Agency, until the environmental impact assessment is completed.

Google detailed its major buildout plans in Finland at the start of September 2026, stating it would be investing €13 billion ($15.13bn) in digital infrastructure in Finland across 2027 and 2028.

The company has had a presence in Finland since it acquired a former paper mill in Hamina in 2009 and transformed it into a data center. The data center is cooled with seawater, and has been upgraded numerous times over the last 15 years. In 2022, the company purchased 50 acres of adjacent land to accommodate further expansion.

In 2024, Google acquired 1,400 hectares of land in Kajaani and Muhos from state-run forest agency Metsähallitus, but did not detail plans for the sites at the time. In February of this year, it added to its Finland land portfolio again with the acquisition of 900 hectares in Vaala for a possible data center project.