DCPI · Interconnection queues

How big are US interconnection queues, and what do they mean for data center power?

Each US grid operator publishes its own queue, on its own counting basis. DC Hub shows them side by side, ISO by ISO, with the basis and the source date, and does not add them together. Large-load requests are a separate queue and are shown separately.

Generation queue by ISO

Active generation interconnection queue by US ISO. Figures are not added together.
ISOQueue, GWProjectsWhat is countedSource date
ERCOT454.51,890ERCOT-published request count, same report as the GWERCOT's published active generation interconnection requests (Monthly Operational Overview); separate from the large-load queueAug 31, 2026published report
MISO253.7+ 18.1 GW pending revision, reported separately1,139Active only, summer MW; excludes Done, Pending and WithdrawnOct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date
SPP186.41,000Includes 333 in commercial operation. The GW figure includes them too.Active requests, max summer MW; excludes cessationOct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date
PJM134.9653Includes 64 suspended. The GW figure includes them too.Active generation requests incl. TC1/TC2, MFO (maximum facility output, not firm MW capacity); excludes transmission-service requests, In Service and Withdrawn. Changed 2026-10-06: the ~26 GW of Long-Term Firm transmission-service requests that PJM's export also lists were removed from this total (161.3 GW to ~135 GW); not a PJM refreshOct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date
CAISO73.8261Active only, Net MW to grid; co-located hybrid projects counted once; excludes Completed (built) and WithdrawnOct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date
ISO-NE12.556Status A (active), summer MW; net MW where summer is blank; excludes Completed (C) and Withdrawn (W)Oct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date
NYISO10.0169Active only, summer MWOct 15, 2026live feed, fetch date

Figures are the ISO's active generation requests as that ISO counts them. They are not comparable one-for-one and are not summed. DC Hub checks each source daily; the source date is the date of the figure's own report or feed. The NESO, AESO, IESO connections queues count generation and demand projects in one figure; they are outside the US and are not shown here, but are in the API.

Large-load (demand) queues

474 GW of large-load requests (June 2026 data) are waiting to connect to ERCOT. ERCOT states about 90% are data centers; DC Hub multiplies that out to 426.6 GW, a derived figure ERCOT does not publish itself. ERCOT source.

This is a demand queue. It is not added to any figure in the table above. The other ISOs' public queues are generation-side and do not classify load, so DC Hub carries no large-load figure for them.

Where new load can land

Live from the Data Center Power Index, the same ranking the rank_markets tool serves: markets with a BUILD verdict, highest composite first.

Highest-scoring BUILD markets in the Data Center Power Index
MarketISOVerdictDCPI, of 100
Midland–Odessa, TXERCOTBUILD84.2
Upper Peninsula MI, MIMISOBUILD77.1
Williston, ND, NDMISOBUILD76.9
Rural SPP, KSSPPBUILD75.8
Cheyenne, WYWECCBUILD74.8
North Kansas City, MOSPPBUILD72.6

Scored daily, as of 2026-10-15. The verdict and composite are free; the sub-scores behind them need a key. All markets.

Site selection checklist

  1. Which queue are you reading? A generation queue is supply waiting to connect. A large-load queue is demand waiting to connect. Compare like with like, and read each ISO's counting basis.
  2. Where does your load sit in the study process? Ask the utility or ISO which study cluster or cycle a new load request joins, and what it assumes about generation already ahead of it.
  3. What is the modeled time to power? Use the DCPI time-to-power for the market, then test it against the serving utility's own written estimate.
  4. Which substation and voltage can serve the site? Capacity at the nearest transmission substation, and the line voltage, decide whether a few MW or a few hundred MW is realistic.
  5. Is there fiber, and how far is the lead-in? Route diversity and the distance to the nearest long-haul and metro fiber belong in the power question, not after it.
  6. What do water, cooling and permitting add? Cooling water, air permits and local zoning can move a date as much as the queue does.
  7. Can an on-site or behind-the-meter source bridge the wait? Gas, storage or solar on the site can serve load earlier than the grid, with its own permits, fuel supply and cost.

Questions

How big are US interconnection queues?

7 US ISOs publish an active generation queue: ERCOT 454.5 GW; MISO 253.7 GW; SPP 186.4 GW; PJM 134.9 GW; CAISO 73.8 GW; ISO-NE 12.5 GW; NYISO 10.0 GW. Each figure is that ISO's own, on its own counting basis and source date, so DC Hub shows them side by side and does not add them together.

Do data center load requests count in these queue totals?

No. A large-load (demand) queue is a different thing from a generation queue and is shown separately. DC Hub carries a large-load queue for ERCOT; the other ISOs' public queues are generation-side and do not classify load. ERCOT reports about 474 GW of large-load requests (June 2026 data).

What does an interconnection queue mean for data center power?

A queue shows how much generation is waiting to connect to a grid, which bears on how soon and how cheaply new load can be served there. DC Hub's Data Center Power Index turns queue position, load growth and retiring capacity into a daily BUILD, CAUTION or AVOID verdict for each market.

How current are these figures?

DC Hub checks every source daily. Each ISO's figure carries its own source date, and ERCOT's generation figure comes from a monthly report.

Method and citation

Queue figures are collected from each ISO's public queue and normalized to one row per project. The data is published under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: DC Hub (dchub.cloud), interconnection queue snapshot, as of 2026-10-15. JSON: /api/v1/interconnection-queue/snapshot.

ERCOT queue developer, milestones, funnel stage and build chance: Prusak, M. (2026). ercotqueue.com, independent ERCOT queue dashboard. https://www.ercotqueue.com. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Underlying data: ERCOT Generation Interconnection Status report, September 2026. DC Hub joined these fields to its queue rows by INR and renamed some fields. Build chance is ERCOTQueue's model estimate, not an ERCOT figure. No endorsement by ERCOTQueue or ERCOT is implied.

Ask this from your own assistant: the queue and the market verdicts are available as the get_interconnection_queue and rank_markets tools.

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