In July 2026, FERC opened proceeding RD26-7-000. The order directs NERC to write reliability standards for computational loads. It also directs NERC to propose the registry criteria that would make large data centers compliance entities. NERC must file by December 31, 2026.
Until now, reliability standards bound utilities and generators. Loads were customers. The 2026 trip events ended that arrangement, because a load that disconnects 3,800 megawatts at once is a reliability event, whoever owns it.
For facility engineers the direction is concrete: sensitivity is becoming a compliance property, with evidence requirements. A facility that can show measured ride-through capability is ahead of the standard, not chasing it.
Context and the related ERCOT rule are on the Standards Compliance page.
What a compliance claim has to name
Power quality standards do three things. They define the quantities, prescribe how to measure them and set limits at a named point. A facility is compliant when an instrument at that point reports a percentile of windowed values under the limit. The Standards Compliance page adds that a claim which leaves out the window, the percentile or the place cannot be tested.
Compliance is a measurement campaign. The commissioning engineer installs a Class A analyzer at the point of common coupling for at least a week. The engineer then compares the percentiles with the IEEE 519 tables for the site’s short-circuit ratio. A campaign report has to name the edition it was measured against.
What the load rule already asks for
ERCOT’s NOGRR282 applies to sites of 75 megawatts or more where at least half the demand is power-electronic computational load. It sets how long the load must stay connected in each voltage band. NOGRR282 requires a root cause report within 90 days of a ride-through failure on ERCOT’s request. The Data Centers and Compute page sets out the bands in full.
Where this stands today
The Standards Compliance page lists the FERC order beside ERCOT’s ride-through rule, NOGRR282. It notes that a data center now answers to ERCOT and FERC as well as IEEE 519. The page also states that our controller does not provide ride-through.
The Data Centers and Compute page carries the PJM record of the 3,800 megawatt transfer. Both pages close on the same first step, one week of measurement at the site.
Related reading
- Resilience: what a short sag costs a plant, and what correction does not change
- Request a site analysis: the facts an engineer reads before saying what to measure first
