Recurring series · The Intelligent Infrastructure Review
Plain-language explanations of how utility regulation, permitting, public policy, incentives, grid planning, and infrastructure rules affect energy-intensive projects.
Rules decide what gets built, how long it takes, and who pays for it — usually before a single piece of equipment is specified. Each installment takes one policy or regulatory development, states what actually changed, links to the official record, and works through what it means for a project that has to be powered, permitted, financed, and delivered.
Not legal advice
This series is published for general information. It is not legal advice, regulatory advice, or tax advice, and it does not create any professional relationship. Rules change, apply differently by jurisdiction, and turn on facts specific to each project. Consult qualified legal, regulatory, and tax counsel before acting.
How the series works
One development at a time, taken in the same order — what happened, where it applies, who it touches, what actually changed, and what a project team should do about it.
The action taken, stated in one line before any interpretation of it.
The body that acted, the level it sits at, and exactly where the rule applies.
Named parties — developers, utilities, investors, agencies — and how each is touched.
The specific mechanics, linked to the official order, rule, statute, or decision.
The mechanism by which a rule becomes a schedule, a cost, or a constraint.
Where it lands on cost, schedule, siting, financing, and delivery.
Effective dates, compliance filings, and what is still pending on the record.
What could change the outcome, including appeals, rehearings, and open dockets.
The specific questions to put to counsel, the utility, and the internal team.
Our own reading, in its own labeled block, never mixed into the description of the rule.
Editorial standard
A reader should be able to tell exactly what a body did, read it in the original, and see clearly where our opinion begins.
What changed
The mechanics of the rule, order, statute, or decision — stated plainly and linked to the official record from the agency, commission, court, or Congress that issued it. Terms of art are defined where they appear.
GRIDSTROM perspective
Our own reading of what the change means for how projects get powered, financed, permitted, and delivered. Always in its own labeled block at the end, never mixed into the description of the rule.
Not legal advice
Nothing here is legal, regulatory, or tax advice. Rules differ by jurisdiction and turn on project-specific facts. Every installment states this and points project teams to the questions worth putting to qualified counsel.
Jurisdiction
The same question — can this load be served, and on what terms — is answered at a different level depending on where the site is and what it connects to.
FERC, Congress, federal agencies, and the federal courts.
RTOs, ISOs, and transmission planning regions.
Public utility commissions, state agencies, and state legislatures.
Counties, municipalities, zoning boards, and local approvals.
The beat
Each installment is filed under the parts of the system it touches, so the series can be read by the constraint you are working against.
Latest installment · Federal · U.S. Congress; Department of the Treasury; Internal Revenue Service
Technology-neutral credits under sections 45Y and 48E remain available, but 2025 legislation added earlier phase-out dates for wind and solar and foreign-entity restrictions — making construction-start timing a central design decision.
Who is affected
Where it lands on a project
Official sources
The series
Each one is dated, sourced to the official record, and archived so a decision can be traced back to the rules as they stood at the time.
Technology-neutral credits under sections 45Y and 48E remain available, but 2025 legislation added earlier phase-out dates for wind and solar and foreign-entity restrictions — making construction-start timing a central design decision.
Federal incentives · Infrastructure funding · Workforce requirements
Published August 1, 2026 · 12 min read
A 2025 Supreme Court decision limited how far agencies must look when analyzing effects under NEPA, and the government-wide implementing regulations were rescinded — leaving review to agency-specific procedures.
Permitting · Local approvals · Environmental review
Published August 1, 2026 · 11 min read
Rather than serving gigawatt-scale customers under existing industrial rates, a growing number of state commissions have approved or opened proceedings on dedicated large-load tariffs with minimum take, longer terms, and exit protections.
Utility interconnection · Data-center tariffs · Demand response
Published August 1, 2026 · 12 min read
Transmission providers must plan on a twenty-year horizon, evaluate a defined set of benefits, and file how the cost of the resulting lines will be allocated — a change aimed at building capacity before the queue demands it.
Transmission planning · Grid reliability · Infrastructure funding
Published August 1, 2026 · 11 min read
The federal interconnection process moved from serial study of every request to cluster study of ready projects, with firmer deposits, firmer deadlines, and penalties on the transmission provider for late studies.
Utility interconnection · Transmission planning · Grid reliability
Published August 1, 2026 · 12 min read
Written for
The series is written for project teams and decision-makers who need to understand a rule well enough to plan around it — and to know which questions belong with counsel.
Each installment is sent when it publishes — what changed, where it applies, and what it means for a project.
Rules only matter once they hit a specific load, a specific utility, and a specific schedule. Bring the project and we will work the technical and commercial side through with you, alongside your legal and regulatory advisors.
