The 45-day abeyance window under FERC’s June 18 large-load show-cause orders closed on Sunday, August 3. Any RTO or ISO that did not seek a stay must file its full Section 206 answer, or Section 205 tariff reforms addressing the Commission’s five focus areas, by the August 17 briefing deadline.
The six dockets are EL26-67 (PJM), EL26-70 (MISO), EL26-68 (SPP), EL26-71 (CAISO), EL26-72 (ISO-NE), and EL26-69 (NYISO). The Commission preliminarily found each set of existing tariffs unjust and unreasonable for the integration of large loads, defined in the parallel notice of proposed rulemaking as any behind-the-meter or transmission-connected customer at a single site with 50 MW or greater peak demand at 69 kV or higher. Stakeholder comments on whatever the RTOs file are due September 16.
The five reform focus areas
- Application and study processes for large load transmission service.
- Cost transparency and cost-shifting protections for existing customers.
- Co-location arrangement rates and conditions, including behind-the-meter carve-outs.
- Flexible large loads and behind-the-meter generation services (curtailable-load tariffs, on-site gas or nuclear paired with grid backup).
- Electrically proximate large load interconnection terms.
Abeyance was capped at 90 days, and the Commission signaled it would not grant stays reflexively or extend them further. Practically, that means the FERC docket resolves on a timeline measured in months, not years, and every RTO that took the Aug 17 filing wall on the chin has to put a concrete Section 205 reform package on the table by then.
Why this matters
Every large-load story from the past twelve months, hyperscaler co-location at Susquehanna, ERCOT’s batch-zero cutover, PJM’s cluster-1 cost signals, sits underneath this docket. The reforms FERC ultimately blesses will re-price how AI data centers, industrial hydrogen, and behind-the-meter nuclear and gas plants join the grid.
Two threads to watch through August:
- Section 205 versus Section 206 posture. RTOs that file voluntary Section 205 reforms hold more control over the outcome and preempt a Commission-imposed remedy. RTOs that only answer under Section 206 accept whatever fix FERC hands down. The split by Aug 17 tells you which regions plan to lead the redesign and which will be led.
- Co-location and BTM treatment. Focus areas 3 and 4 are the ones most directly wired into the nuclear-plus-data-center pipeline. How the six RTOs propose to treat behind-the-meter generation, backup service, and cost allocation determines whether the current wave of PPAs (Kairos-TVA-Google, Aalo-Crusoe, and the microreactor preorder book) settle into standardized tariff language or continue as one-off arrangements.
For US-supply positioning, the docket is thesis-confirming on marginal capex: whichever tariff regime clears first pulls the next round of hyperscaler siting decisions with it, and the transmission owners inside those footprints capture the interconnection revenue.