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RI — Power Infrastructure Updated 2026-07-17

Rhode Island

ISO-NE Data Center PPAs Transmission Constraints

1) Grid operator & market structure

2) Interconnection and large-load forecasting

  • ISO-NE large-load forecast added to CELT 2026: ISO-NE incorporated a new large-load forecast into the 2026-2035 Forecast Report of Capacity, Energy, Loads, and Transmission (CELT), published May 1, 2026. ISO Newswire, 2026-05-18; ISO-NE CELT workbook, 2026-05-01
  • Large-load inclusion criteria: ISO-NE’s March 27, 2026 final-draft large-load forecast says included prospective large-load projects must be larger than 20 MW in expected nameplate and have entered a formal study agreement. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27
  • No public Rhode Island project in CELT 2026 large-load list: The 2026 large-load list included a 200 MW NEMA-zone data center and an 85 MW Connecticut general-electrification load; it did not list a Rhode Island-zone data center or other Rhode Island large load. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27
  • Regional scale remains limited: ISO-NE said prospective large loads in New England remained limited in number and scale, with a couple hundred MW in formal study, and that New England had not seen the scale of data-center proposals found in other regions. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27
  • Peak and energy impacts: ISO-NE reported that the included large loads were not expected to affect system demand before winter 2027/2028; the forecast added about 110 MW to summer/winter peak demand in the 2030s, rising to about 130 MW in the 2040s, and about 800 GWh of annual energy in 2030-2035, rising to about 1,000 GWh in the 2040s. ISO Newswire, 2026-05-18
  • Queue process: ISO-NE’s public interconnection queue remains a generation/interconnection-service queue and does not publicly classify entries by end-use customer type; behind-the-meter retail generation for a data center may not appear as a wholesale interconnection request. ISO-NE interconnection queue page, accessed 2026-06-10
  • Federal large-load tariff proceeding: On June 18, FERC opened a Federal Power Act section 206 show-cause proceeding for each regional grid operator, including ISO-NE Docket EL26-72-000, requiring the operators to justify or revise tariff rules for connecting large loads such as data centers and to address reliability, cost allocation, transparency, and interconnection timing. FERC, 2026-06-18; FERC order for ISO-NE, 2026-06-18
  • ISO-NE response remains pending: ISO-NE said it and the New England transmission owners planned to ask FERC by August 3 for a 90-day abeyance to conduct a stakeholder process; absent an abeyance, the tariff response would be due November 16. As of July 17, the FERC order had not yet produced a final ISO-NE large-load tariff or Rhode Island-specific interconnection rule. ISO Newswire, 2026-06-29

3) Ratepayer protection / cost allocation

  • No enacted Rhode Island data-center tariff as of 2026-07-17: No Rhode Island PUC order establishing a data-center-specific tariff was located. Rhode Island Energy’s current tariff index continues to use general commercial and industrial classifications, including G-32 Large Demand, without a dedicated data-center class. Rhode Island Energy tariff index, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Large energy use tariff bills died: S2427/H7270 would have required a separate service classification, tariff, and rate schedule for facilities using or able to use 20 MW or more and primarily engaged in NAICS 518210-type data/cloud hosting services; the tariff would have allocated costs to the class or directly assigned costs to the customer, mitigated cost-shift risk, required at least 10-year contracts, and considered clean-energy-target impacts. Both bills died in committee. RI General Assembly bill text S2427, 2026-02-06; RI General Assembly bill text H7270, 2026-01-23; LegiScan S2427, accessed 2026-07-17; LegiScan H7270, accessed 2026-07-17
  • Data-center cost-allocation bills died: S2776/H7331 would have defined data centers as facilities with projected or actual electric demand of 50 MW or greater and required electric generation, transmission, and distribution costs reasonably attributable to serving the data center to be borne exclusively by that data center rather than residential or non-data-center commercial customers. Both bills died in committee. RI General Assembly bill text S2776, 2026-03-04; RI General Assembly bill text H7331, 2026-01-28; LegiScan S2776, accessed 2026-07-17; LegiScan H7331, accessed 2026-07-17
  • PUC testimony: The PUC told Senate Commerce that S2427 needed clearer language on whether the tariff applied to interconnection and rates or only rates, and also raised implementation questions on the S2776 cost-allocation, siting, and water provisions. RI PUC testimony on S2427, 2026-03-10; RI PUC testimony on S2776, 2026-03-10
  • Utility testimony: Rhode Island Energy agreed with the principle that costs exclusively attributable to large data-center loads should not be subsidized by other distribution ratepayers, but asked for more study of transmission impacts, new tariffs or rate classes, special contracts, cross-subsidization protections, and system readiness. Rhode Island Energy testimony, 2026-03-10
  • Standard LRS proceedings: The PUC continued to handle ordinary supply-cost proceedings in 2026; Docket 26-03-EL approved Rhode Island Energy LRS rates for residential/commercial customers for April-September 2026 and industrial customers for April-June 2026, but that docket was not a data-center tariff docket. RI PUC Docket 26-03-EL, 2026-05-22

4) Generation adequacy and supply context

  • Regional adequacy framework: ISO-NE continues to flag energy adequacy as a regional planning issue as electrification, weather-dependent resources, and system changes increase the need for flexible resources and transmission. ISO-NE Regional Electricity Outlook, accessed 2026-06-10
  • Large-load derating: ISO-NE applies project-maturity derates and a data-center-specific capacity-utilization derate in the large-load forecast; for data centers, the 2026 methodology applies a 70% utilization derate based on current industry practices. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27

5) Utility load forecasts & Rhode Island project signals

  • Public CELT signal: ISO-NE’s 2026 public large-load forecast did not include a Rhode Island-zone data-center load; that is the strongest public grid-planning signal located in this update. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27
  • Smithfield proposal status: The proposed Hanton City Investments Smithfield development would include data centers or data processing/storage facilities, but the town issued a Second Certificate of Incompleteness on June 11 and noticed the applicant’s appeal for August 5. No MW interconnection request, utility service agreement, or PUC tariff filing was publicly identified through July 17. Town of Smithfield public-hearing notice, 2026-07-16; Ocean State Media, 2026-05-13

6) Water, environmental, and community impacts

7) Transmission constraints and planned upgrades

  • Planning-area relevance: ISO-NE identifies Southeastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island (SEMA/RI) as a key study area for transmission planning, so large data-center load in Rhode Island would intersect an already studied regional transmission area. ISO-NE Key Study Areas, accessed 2026-06-10
  • No Rhode Island-specific data-center upgrade identified: No public ISO-NE CELT large-load item, PUC order, or Rhode Island Energy filing located in this update identified a specific Rhode Island transmission or distribution upgrade for a data center through July 17. ISO-NE’s June 2026 Regional System Plan project list reported 13 active reliability projects and no active projects in Rhode Island. ISO-NE Large Load Forecast, 2026-03-27; ISO Newswire transmission update, 2026-07-14; RI PUC Docket 26-03-EL, 2026-05-22

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