Comparative Analysis of Large Load Interconnection Requirements Across U.S. Transmission Entities
Rafi Zahedi, Rahul Anilkumar, Amin Zamani
The rapid growth of large loads, especially data centers driven by artificial intelligence, is creating unprecedented demands on the North American electric grid. Data centers now account for nearly 80% of large load interconnection requests in the Western Interconnection, and U.S. electricity consumption from data centers is projected to reach 325-580 TWh by 2028. Despite this urgency, technical interconnection requirements for large loads have not yet matured and still contain several gaps. This paper presents a comparative analysis of large load interconnection requirements across eleven U.S. entities, including AEP, Ameren, CAISO, Dominion, Duke Energy, ERCOT, LIPA, MISO, PJM, Southern Company, and SPP, under seven technical categories: large load definition, load data and modeling, fault ride-through, load curtailment and shedding, dispatchability, power quality, and reactive power control. The analysis reveals significant variation in both the scope and specificity of requirements. LIPA addresses all seven technical categories at least partially, while Dominion and Duke Energy provide detailed coverage across nearly all categories. The analysis also finds that data center applicants can be viewed as potential grid resources, rather than only as consumers. The findings provide a structured baseline from which utilities, regulators, ISOs/RTOs, and developers can identify gaps, benchmark against peers, and accelerate the development of interconnection standards.
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