For Data Centers, Both Hyperscale And Edge Are Key In 2026

On Oct. 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate a rulemaking to accelerate and standardize the interconnection of large loads.

The rulemaking comes as regional transmission operators, including PJM Interconnection LLC, Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc. and Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc., have released updated interconnection queue data showing historic levels of new load requests, much of it attributed to large-scale compute and artificial intelligence-driven facilities.