H.R. 10579 — Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act of 2026

This section expresses the sense of Congress that rapid load growth from data centers and other large facilities threatens grid reliability, electricity affordability for ratepayers, and U.S. technological leadership, and that Congress must address the proliferation of such facilities and direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy accordingly.

This section establishes standard interconnection procedures for large load facilities (i.e., those with peak demand exceeding 50 megawatts) to the interstate transmission system. It directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue final rules within one year requiring large load customers to pay 100 percent of interconnection study costs, assigning network upgrade costs to those customers through a load interconnection queue, and prohibiting interconnection until the transmission provider confirms no violation of Commission-approved reliability standards.