The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is facing fierce crosscurrents over a proposal from the Trump administration to speed grid connections for data centers and other large electricity loads, with states, utilities, technology companies and consumer advocates trying to shape the proposal.
More than 160 parties have sent comments to FERC on a Department of Energy proposal that FERC assert authority to create a fast lane for connecting artificial intelligence data centers and advanced manufacturers to regional grids, along with large power supplies. Tech industry allies of President Donald Trump say the build-out of AI infrastructure is slowed down by the long and arcane process of connecting data centers to regional electric grids.
Tech companies called on FERC to incentivize co-locating data centers at power plants while building in regulatory flexibility to help control costs to electricity consumers.
“Doing so is necessary both to ensure that transmission rates, charges, and practices remain just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential,” Google wrote in its comments to the agency, “as well as to ensure that the United States continues to play the world-leading role in the development of AI and other advanced computing capabilities.”