FERC Just Put Every Grid Operator on the Clock

Real Estate Insights. Success Mindset. One Step at a Time.

Issue #56 | June 21, 2026

🧠 Market Insights

FERC Just Put Every Grid Operator on the Clock

Thursday, FERC voted unanimously. That doesn't happen often.

Acting on Docket No. RM26-4-000, FERC issued tailored show-cause orders to all six regional grid operators, PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO, directing each one to either justify their current interconnection rules for large energy users or file tariff revisions within 60 days.

This isn't a final rule. It's a federal mandate to move. And the scope is broad. We're talking about hyperscalers, yes, but also colo operators, AI cloud providers like CoreWeave and Neocloud, manufacturing facilities, and data-intensive industrial users. If you plug into the interstate transmission grid at scale, this order is about you.

The core problem FERC is solving: the interconnection queue was built for a different era. Timelines stretch years. Costs are unpredictable. Rules vary by region. Large-load developers can't underwrite a site when they can't model the cost of turning the lights on.

Five categories of reform are on the table across every region: faster study processes, cost transparency, co-location rules for behind-the-meter generation, prevention of cost shifting onto existing ratepayers, and accommodating flexible load configurations.

Here's the land angle: when developers can finally model interconnection costs with confidence, the sites that already sit near available transmission capacity get a clearer path to premium pricing. Sites that depend on future grid extensions that haven't been studied or funded become a harder conversation.

Dirt Dawg Take: FERC just forced a reckoning the grid operators have been avoiding. Sixty days to defend or change. That clock matters for land. The sites closest to ready power are about to get a lot more attention from buyers who now have a clearer picture of what interconnection actually costs them.

✨ The Alpha Effect

The Whole Point Was Always to Let Go

Today is Father's Day.

I read a terrific piece in Mike Kimmelman's newsletter this morning.

This moved me:

"And the father discovers that the entire point of holding on, from the very beginning, was to be able to let go.

That is the job. Nobody hands you a manual. Nobody throws a parade. You simply show up, day after unremarkable day, and you become the thing your child leans against until the day he no longer has to."

Nobody posts about the unremarkable days. But that's where everything gets built. That's where the magic happens, in life and in business.

Building position looks the same way. The little things you do day in and day out to keep things moving forward. The late nights. The early mornings. The call you make that nobody sees. You hold when holding is the right call, and you stay ready so that when the moment comes, you can let go clean.

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads who showed up and continue to show up on the unremarkable days.

🚀 One Step at a Time

Action Steps This Week

1. Find Out Which Grid Operator Covers Your Market

PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO each received a different tailored order with different reform priorities. The rules applying to your land depend on where it sits. Spend 20 minutes identifying your regional operator and pulling their current large-load interconnection queue. That queue tells you where demand is lining up and where the bottlenecks are.

2. Where Are You Holding On When It's Time to Let Go?

Pick one deal, one parcel, one relationship in your portfolio where you've been gripping too tightly. Maybe the price is anchored to 2022. Maybe you've been waiting on a partner who isn't moving. Maybe you already know the use doesn't pencil, but you haven't said it out loud yet. Letting go isn't losing. When you release what isn't working, you free yourself to catch what is. That's not just good parenting. That's good investing.

3. Make One Call You've Been Putting Off

There's a client, landowner, developer, broker, or lender you've been meaning to reconnect with. Not to pitch. Just to have the conversation. Markets move when relationships restart. The unremarkable call you make this week might be the one that matters most six months from now.

Small steps compound. Keep showing up on the unremarkable days.

Here's to building your success, one step at a time...

from the dirt up.

Kris "Dirt Dawg" McGee 🐾

The Dirt Dawg Den