What a New Federal Proceeding Reveals about Distributed Energy’s Role in the AI Race

Source: Elisa Wood | · ENERGY CHANGEMAKERS · | November 30, 2025

To understand what preoccupies the electric power industry right now — and how much distributed energy plays into it — look no further than a proceeding before federal regulators about interconnecting data centers and other large energy customers to the transmission system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Docket (FERC) RM26-4-000 has attracted hundreds of filings from players ranging from grid operators, power marketers, and big data center operators like Amazon, Google and Meta to state consumer advocates and tribal organizations.

But most striking is the participation of distributed energy companies in the docket. Their presence underscores a broadening of the industry’s purpose.

Traditionally built to provide resilience or cost savings for their host customers, distributed energy is increasingly demonstrating its value in easing pressure on an oversubscribed transmission system.

Enchanted Rock, Voltus, Sparkfund, Bloom Energy, FuelCell Energy, CPower, Enel North America, Tesla, and Mainspring Energy are among those making the case for distributed energy in the federal docket, along with supportive organizations, such as the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The proceeding isn’t about distributed energy per se. It centers on a jurisdictional issue arising because of the data center boom. Typically, states oversee retail customer connections to the grid. But the Department of Energy, which wants to speed the interconnection process, argues that it’s in the public interest for data centers and other large customers to fall under federal purview.