On October 23, 2025, Secretary Wright of the Department of Energy (“DOE”) directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) to initiate a rulemaking procedure, and provided an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANOPR”) outlining a set of principles to guide FERC’s rulemaking which would apply to the interconnection of new loads or “hybrid” facilities (hybrid facilities meaning co-located generation and load) greater than 20 MW that are directly interconnecting to the interstate transmission system. The Secretary asked FERC to take final action on the proposed reforms by April 30, 2026. On October 27, 2025, FERC issued a Notice Inviting Comments on the proposed ANOPR, in FERC Docket No. RM26-4-000.
High Level Summary of ANOPR
The proposed ANOPR provides four legal justifications as to why the Commission has jurisdiction over such interconnections. First, the ANOPR states that large load interconnections are a “critical component of open access transmission service” that require minimum terms and conditions to ensure non-discriminatory transmission service. Second, the ANOPR states that the interconnection of large loads to the transmission system falls under a practice directly affecting Commission-jurisdictional wholesale electricity rates. Third, the ANOPR states that the proposal does not impinge on states’ authority over retail electricity sales by asserting jurisdiction over the interconnection of large loads to the transmission system. Fourth, the ANOPR states that any contrary view of the proposed reforms conflicts with the Federal Power Act’s (“FPA”) core purposes.
DOE’s proposed ANOPR includes the following principles for reform:
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To avoid affecting the State’s jurisdiction over generation facilities, facilities used in local distribution or only for the transmission of electric energy in intrastate commerce, or transmission of electric energy consumed wholly by the transmitter, the Commission’s jurisdiction should be limited to interconnections directly to transmission facilities, consistent with the Commission’s seven-factor test.
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Consistent with the Commission’s pro forma LGIP and LGIA, the reforms should only apply to new loads greater than 20 MW, and for hybrid facilities, where the load is greater than 20 MW.
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To the extent practicable, load and hybrid facilities should be studied together with generating facilities.
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Like generating facilities, load and hybrid facilities should be subject to standardized study deposits, readiness requirements, and withdrawal penalties.
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Hybrid facilities should be studied based on the amount of injection and/or withdrawal rights requested.
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Any hybrid interconnection shall be required to install the system protection facilities necessary to prevent unauthorized injections or withdrawals that exceed the respective rights.
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The interconnection study of large loads that agree to be curtailable and hybrid facilities that agree to be curtailable and dispatchable should be expedited.
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Load and hybrid facilities should be responsible for 100% of the network upgrades that are assigned through the interconnection studies.
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To the extent the interconnection customer is not the transmission owner, the interconnection customer shall be afforded the same (or equivalent) option to build as currently provided to generator interconnection customers.
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An existing generating facility that seeks to enter a partial suspension to serve a new load at the same location must go through a system support resource (SSR)/reliability must run (RMR) type study. The study must consider system conditions, including forecasted load growth, at least three years after the proposed suspension date. The partial suspension can only proceed after any network upgrades needed to ensure reliability are placed into service. Any such network upgrades shall be the responsibility of the generating facility.
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Utilities serving large loads, including those at hybrid facilities, should be responsible for transmission service based on their withdrawal rights, as that value amount reflects the quantity of capacity and energy that is being transmitted across the transmission system to the load.
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Utilities serving large loads, including those at hybrid facilities, should be responsible for ancillary services based on peak demand, without consideration of any co-located generation. Any co-located generating facilities will similarly be fully compensated for the provision of ancillary services.
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There must be a plan to implement these proposed reforms.
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Utilities serving large loads must meet all applicable North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards and Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) provisions.
The ANOPR identified certain issues pertaining to the proposed principles of reform for which it sought comment. Initial comments on the ANOPR are due November 21, 2025, and reply comments are due December 5, 2025. For more information and assistance in developing a response please contact Jeffrey Genzer, Lisa Gast, and Bhaveeta Mody.