The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Board of Trustees adopted foundational Reliability Standards for computational loads on October 26, 2026, addressing growing concerns about the impact of energy-intensive computing operations on bulk power system reliability. The standards will be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval in the United States, with coordination planned with Canadian authorities. Additional standards are being developed to address computational load performance, reliability planning, system modeling, and event reporting.
NERC also announced that proposed revisions to its Standard Processes Manual (SPM) passed an initial ballot on October 26 with strong stakeholder support. The revisions aim to make standards development more responsive to emerging reliability risks while maintaining industry participation. Related changes to NERC’s Rules of Procedure and governance documents are also underway.
Together, these initiatives represent progress in NERC’s broader effort to strengthen grid reliability as electricity demand from large computational loads grows. NERC will review stakeholder feedback before advancing the proposed procedural changes to its Board for final adoption and subsequent submission to FERC.
