New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich introduced the GRID Savings Act this week, a bill that would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to write rules making very large electricity users pay for the grid upgrades their connections require.
The bill targets loads above 150 megawatts, a scale that leaves out many non-data-center large loads. It would apply only to loads connecting to the interstate transmission system, which leaves ERCOT outside the bill's reach, since it is the grid operator with the largest large-load pipeline in the U.S. In return for funding those upgrades, the bill would let qualifying loads move through interconnection faster.
Under current practice, large loads including data centers pay for the electricity they use but not necessarily for the grid upgrades their presence requires. Large power plants already have to pay for the upgrades needed to connect, and post collateral behind that commitment. A one-pager describing the bill says it "applies the same basic approach to very large new electricity users."
A jurisdictional question FERC left unresolved
Giving FERC this authority would be a major jurisdictional change. The commission has historically not had power over large load interconnection, which has been the states' territory. Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued in an October directive that large loads connecting to interstate transmission fall "squarely within the Commission's jurisdiction" under the Federal Power Act, and told FERC to speed up interconnection for large loads that agree to be curtailable.
FERC did not take that step. In a unanimous, bipartisan vote in June, the commission acknowledged that existing tariffs have not kept pace with data center demand, but declined to assert federal control. It instead ordered every regional grid operator except ERCOT to justify or rework its tariffs. The GRID Savings Act would reopen the jurisdictional question FERC left unresolved.
A second bill moving through the House
Heinrich's bill is not the first attempt to put enforcement behind the idea. In July, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced its own bill, H.R. 9340. That bipartisan bill goes further on cost recovery, requiring large loads to cover generation, transmission and distribution upgrades, where the Senate bill covers transmission alone. It sets a lower threshold, 100 megawatts, and works through state public utility commissions rather than FERC.
The pledge these bills are answering
Both bills follow the White House's March "ratepayer protection pledge," in which hyperscalers agreed to pay for their own generation and transmission costs. Signatories have grown from seven to 200 utilities, data center companies and Republican governors, but the pledge carries no binding enforcement mechanism. Reaction across the energy industry was largely lukewarm. Latitude Media has reported that the pledge has already complicated the construction of at least one major rate-based transmission line.
According to a Latitude Intelligence analysis, 18 states now have a purpose-built data center tariff in effect or approved, split evenly between states with Democratic and Republican governors. Those tariffs typically cover more loads than either federal bill: the median trigger is 50 megawatts, and the highest is 100 megawatts, per Latitude Intelligence.
