The rulebook is turning toward on-site power.
In June 2026, federal regulators told all six U.S. grid operators to make room for behind-the-meter generation and co-located load — and to stop spreading large-load grid costs onto everyone else. Here is what it changes for how AI campuses get powered.
FERC found existing large-load grid rules unjust and unreasonable and ordered all six market operators to reform them within 60 days. Of five mandated reform areas, one names co-location and behind-the-meter generation outright. The regulated path to powering AI is shifting from “wait in the queue” to “bring your own power.”
What FERC actually ordered — and what each piece signals
The Commission directed every grid operator to address five reform areas. Read together, they describe a system being re-engineered to favor power that is generated where it is consumed.
| The reform FERC mandated | What it signals for on-site power |
|---|---|
| Faster transmission study processes, including alternative technologies | Even the regulator concedes the interconnection queue is the bottleneck — and that alternatives to grid upgrades deserve a faster lane. |
| Prevent cost-shifting; require transparency into transmission costs | The load that triggers a grid upgrade increasingly owns its cost — raising the real price of grid-dependent power for large users. |
| Accommodate co-location and behind-the-meter generation | On-site generation moves from improvised workaround to a tariffed, regulated option the grid operators must support. |
| New transmission services for flexible large loads | Loads that can modulate are now formally valued — rewarding storage and intelligent dispatch over rigid demand. |
| Study generation alongside electrically-proximate large loads | Pairing generation directly with nearby load is recognized as a way to avoid costly, slow transmission build-outs. |
Two shifts, both pointing the same way
Grid power gets more expensive — and more attributed
By moving to curb cost-shifting, FERC pushes the cost of the network upgrades a large load triggers back onto that load. Grid-dependent power for a hyperscale campus stops being a socialized cost and becomes a line item the project owns.
On-site power gets a cleared lane
For the first time, the federal regulator is directing grid operators to build rules that accommodate behind-the-meter generation and co-located load. What used to be a way around the system is becoming a recognized path through it.
This is FERC-jurisdictional territory — PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE and NYISO — not ERCOT, so the effect is sharpest in Eastern markets, where PJM is already operationalizing co-located transmission service. And it cuts both ways: FERC also wants to speed interconnection, so a raw “queue-length” advantage may narrow over time. The durable edge is cost certainty and independence from the grid altogether.
The regulatory current now runs with the model, not against it.
AnchorPower was built to deliver firm, contracted power on-site — behind the meter, independent of the interconnection queue. The June 2026 reforms move the regulated market toward exactly that posture, whether a customer steps outside the grid entirely or co-locates within the new framework.
Fully off-grid, behind-the-meter firm power steps outside the transmission system and these tariffs entirely — no queue, no network-upgrade cost allocation. First power in 18–20 months on a fixed-price PPA.
Grid-tied configurations operate within the co-location rules FERC is now standardizing — with the load flexibility that the new “flexible large load” transmission services are designed to reward.