Interconnection After FERC's Efficiency Workshop: What Developers Are Seeing Across Load, Markets, and Risk

In 2024, FERC convened a national workshop on improving generator interconnection efficiency through automation, advanced computing, and better coordination across study and post-GIA phases. Since then, developers have operated in a materially different environment, shaped by queue reform, rising upgrade costs, OBBB-driven changes to project finance, and unprecedented load growth tied to data centers and electrification.

This Clean Power INSIGHTS presentation synthesizes lessons emerging from developer experience across regions to assess what has actually changed since the workshop, and where uncertainty persists. The talk highlights how load growth and market dynamics are increasingly shaping interconnection outcomes, where smarter use of interconnection studies is improving predictability, and why gaps remain between study results and project execution.

Rather than revisiting policy intent, the presentation focuses on observed outcomes and practical implications for developers, grid planners, and policymakers. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how interconnection, load growth, and markets are intersecting in practice, and what adjustments may be needed to improve timelines and certainty going forward.