MISO Asks FERC to Fast-Track 200MW Loads and Their Power

MISO asked federal regulators on Friday 2 October 2026 to let it review very large new electricity customers and the power plants meant to supply them in a single study rather than two. The filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, logged under accession number 20261002-5074, proposes a 120-day Large Load Addition Resource Study open to loads larger than 200 megawatts where the generation sits in the same local resource zone. MISO has 10 such zones across the 15 states it operates in, from Louisiana to Minnesota, and they broadly follow state lines.

The grid operator told FERC it expects load across its footprint to grow by 1 to 3 per cent a year through 2044, according to its application as reported by Utility Dive on 5 October. Data centres and manufacturing plants are what is driving that forecast, the same pattern straining every US grid operator.

Pairing, and the 15-year lock

The conditions are the substance of the proposal. Under MISO's plan the commercial operation date of the generating facility and the in-service date of the associated load must both fall within three years of the application. The load can phase in, but must take service for the full amount of transmission service it requested by the time the generator starts running. Most significant of all, the generation and the load must remain paired for at least 15 years. Applicants also face non-refundable deposits intended to filter out speculative projects, and MISO would study up to 10 applications in each of three annual periods.

MISO was explicit that cheapness is not the objective.

The process would not touch projects already sitting in MISO's standard generation interconnection queue, and the grid operator says proposed load and generation would be held to the same standards as its other interconnection processes.

A regulator that already said no

This filing did not arrive unprompted. FERC issued a show-cause order against MISO on 18 June 2026 under section 206 of the Federal Power Act, reported at 195 FERC paragraph 61,212 in docket EL26-70-000, requiring reformed tariff rules for data centres and other large load customers on matters including cost-shifting and cost transparency. That order is described in a Michigan Public Service Commission decision in case U-22058. MISO's application says the new study process responds in part to the commission's June finding, including its concern about integrating proximate loads and generation.

The 15-year pairing requirement is the part worth watching, because it quietly converts a connection request into a long-term commitment. A hyperscaler that wants speed to power can get a 120-day answer, but only by tying a specific plant to a specific site for longer than most data centre leases run. That is a real trade, and it is a more honest one than the alternative now visible elsewhere: as Parallax Nexus reported on 30 September, FERC told PJM to postpone and revise its backstop procurement plan and to improve its forecasting of data centre demand, because so many connection requests turn out to be speculative.

What MISO has not published is how much of its own 1 to 3 per cent annual growth forecast rests on requests that will never be built. The deposits are designed to answer that question by making applicants pay to be serious, though no figure for them appears in the reporting of the filing, and FERC has not yet said whether the design satisfies the order that prompted it.

MISO asked the commission to rule by 2 December 2026 so the first study period can open early next year.