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The U.S. power-grid interconnection queue shrank by 10% in 2025, but more than 2,060 gigawatts of proposed generation and storage projects were still waiting, and projects that reached operation in 2025 typically took more than five years from request to completion in regions with available data. That is a sign of some progress—not proof that the backlog is close to clearing.
What the interconnection queue measures
A power plant or storage project seeking to connect to the transmission grid must go through studies by the relevant grid operator or transmission provider. Those studies assess the proposed connection’s effects on the system, identify equipment or grid upgrades that may be needed, and determine associated costs. Projects in this process appear in an interconnection queue.
The queue is a list of proposals under review, not a tally of power plants already operating or electricity available to customers. A project’s listed capacity is not a commitment that it will be built, receive a connection agreement, or deliver power.
Has the backlog started to ease?
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2026 queue update counted more than 2,060 GW of active generation and storage capacity in U.S. interconnection queues at the end of 2025, 10% less than the previous year. The decline is encouraging, but it is not enough to conclude that the logjam has broken: the remaining queue is still very large, and a lower total can result from projects withdrawing as well as advancing.
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| Measure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Active U.S. queue at the end of 2025 | More than 2,060 GW of generation and storage capacity; 10% below the prior year, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2026 update. |
| Projects built in 2025 | Median time from interconnection request to commercial operation exceeded five years in regions with available data, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2026 update. |
| Active U.S. queue at the end of 2024 | About 10,300 projects representing 1,400 GW of generation and approximately 890 GW of storage, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2025 report. |
The 2024 and 2025 figures are snapshots from different years, not a like-for-like project cohort. The timing figure is also a median for projects that were built in 2025 in regions with data; it does not say how long every current applicant will take.
Why a smaller queue does not necessarily mean more power is coming
Projects leave queues in more than one way. Some complete the process and advance, while others withdraw. In Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2025 report, which followed generation and storage capacity that submitted interconnection requests from 2000 through 2019, 13% had reached commercial operation by the end of 2024, 77% had been withdrawn, and 10% remained active.
Those historical outcomes describe that particular cohort; they are not a forecast for any specific project now in a queue. They do show why queue capacity should not be treated as future supply. A proposal only becomes operating generation after it clears the necessary studies and other development steps and is actually built.
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How long does it take to connect a power plant?
There is no single timeline that applies to every project. The best broad benchmark in the available national data is the median of more than five years from request to commercial operation for projects built in 2025 in regions with data. That measures the whole path to operation, not just the time spent in a study, and does not guarantee a schedule for a new applicant.
Connection studies are one part of the path. A project may also depend on transmission upgrades, permitting, construction, and its own development schedule. The queue’s headline capacity does not reveal which projects will clear those steps or when.
What grid upgrades might a project need?
The impact studies identify what equipment or network upgrades may be necessary for a proposed connection and assign costs. Requirements vary by project and grid location, so a general queue total cannot tell a developer—or the public—which upgrades a particular plant will need.
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Under FERC Order No. 2023, providers conducting cluster studies must evaluate alternative transmission technologies. FERC lists advanced conductors, advanced power-flow control, transmission switching, voltage-source converters, static synchronous compensators, static VAR compensators, and tower lifting as technologies to consider. This is a requirement to evaluate options in studies, not an order to install every technology or a guarantee that any one option will remove a project’s delays.
What could make interconnection studies move faster?
Berkeley Lab reports that grid operators are adopting automation, advanced computing, and AI software resources to speed up interconnection procedures and studies. MISO, SPP, and PJM have also used limited-term fast-track programs. These are process responses that may help with study work; the reported examples do not establish that every operator uses them or that they have eliminated backlogs.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →FERC Order No. 2023 also reforms generator interconnection procedures, including cluster-study practices. Better study processes may help identify impacts and options more efficiently, but they do not themselves build the transmission facilities a project may need.
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Why more transmission and permitting still matter
Queue reform addresses how projects are studied; it does not substitute for new grid infrastructure where additional capacity is needed. In announcing a 2026 draft National Transmission Needs Study, the Department of Energy cited demand from data centers, manufacturing, large industry, and broader economic growth as reasons for additional transmission infrastructure.
DOE’s coordinated permitting program describes coordination of federal authorizations and a two-year process target. That target is not a guarantee that a particular line will be sited, permitted, funded, and built within two years. Transmission expansion still depends on project-specific decisions and construction, beyond any improvement to queue administration.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Are data-center connection requests part of the generator queue?
Not in the same sense. Generator interconnection queues track proposed power plants and storage seeking transmission access. A data center or other large customer is seeking to connect as a consumer of power, which raises a related but distinct set of questions about service, grid planning, and who pays for infrastructure.
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FERC’s RM26-4 proceeding followed an October 2025 direction to consider timely and orderly interconnection for large loads. In June 2026, FERC issued show-cause orders to the six regional grid operators under its jurisdiction, requiring them to justify their tariffs or propose changes within 60 days. FERC said the action did not intrude on state authority to select, site, and permit generation or to set retail rates. The orders addressed whether existing tariffs or proposed changes were appropriate; they were not a single final national rule resolving large-load connections.
Cost responsibility is a central consumer-protection concern: infrastructure may be built for a large customer whose planned demand does not fully materialize. The question is how tariffs should allocate those costs, not simply how quickly a customer can connect.
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