Google, Xcel, others back MISO’s ‘zero injection’ large load proposal

A regional grid operator called MISO, which runs the power system across a swath of the Midwest and South from Louisiana to Minnesota, has proposed a faster approval process for power plants built specifically to serve big electricity users like data centers and crypto mining operations. Under the plan, projects that generate power at the same substation as the large user they're feeding, and that have little effect on the wider transmission grid, could get reviewed in 90 days instead of the usual long wait. Google, Xcel Energy, and several other utilities and clean energy groups have told federal regulators they support the idea, saying it will clear a backlog of interconnection requests.

Not everyone agrees. The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other environmental and community groups say the plan lacks safeguards and could shift costs onto existing utility customers, meaning ordinary ratepayers could end up subsidizing infrastructure built for data centers. Federal regulators ordered grid operators nationwide to fix inadequate large-load interconnection rules by mid-November, and this MISO proposal is one response.

This is a policy fight playing out in wholesale power markets, not a program homeowners can apply to. But if you live in MISO's territory, the outcome matters indirectly: it could affect whether new data centers strain the local grid and whether related costs eventually show up on residential electric bills. For now, there's nothing to sign up for or act on.