The U.S. power-grid connection backlog showed progress in 2025: active generator and storage capacity in interconnection queues fell 10% from the year before. But it still exceeded 2,060 gigawatts, and projects that reached commercial operation in 2025 had typically waited more than five years from their initial request in regions with available data. The logjam may ease as study rules, technology, and transmission planning change; the latest figures do not show that it is about to disappear.
What the grid connection queue measures
A power plant or battery project seeking to connect to the transmission grid generally has to undergo studies by the relevant grid operator or transmission provider. Those studies assess how the proposed connection could affect the grid, identify equipment or upgrades that may be needed, and determine how costs are assigned. Projects going through that process make up the interconnection queue.
Queue capacity is proposed supply, not electricity already available to homes and businesses. A project can be delayed, changed, or withdrawn; even one that advances still has to be built and begin operating before it supplies power. The queue is therefore a measure of projects seeking access, not a forecast of how much generation will come online.
What the latest numbers say about the backlog
| Snapshot | What was counted | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2024 | About 10,300 projects representing 1,400 GW of generation and approximately 890 GW of storage in U.S. interconnection queues, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2025 report. | A large pipeline of proposed projects—not operating capacity. |
| End of 2025 | More than 2,060 GW of generation and storage capacity remained active in U.S. queues, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2026 report. | The active queue was 10% smaller than the prior year, but still enormous. |
| Projects built in 2025 | The median time from interconnection request to commercial operation was over five years in regions with available data, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 2026 report. | Queue reductions have not yet translated into short connection timelines for projects that reached operation that year. |
The 2024 and 2025 queue figures are snapshots from different years; they should not be read as a count of the same projects moving through the process. Nor does a 10% decline necessarily mean that an equivalent amount of capacity was built. Projects can leave the active queue because they advance, but they can also withdraw.
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Why many queued projects never get built
Berkeley Lab’s 2025 analysis of projects that first requested interconnection from 2000 through 2019 found that by the end of 2024, 13% of their capacity had reached commercial operation, 77% had been withdrawn, and 10% remained active. Those historical results describe that particular request cohort; they do not predict the outcome for any current project. They do show why adding up proposed capacity can greatly overstate the supply that will ultimately be built.
Why connecting a power plant can take years
The connection study is more than an administrative checkpoint. The provider must determine whether the grid can accommodate a project and what changes may be required. If several projects depend on the same constrained part of the network, the studies and any needed upgrades can be linked, and the cost and schedule implications can be significant. A project’s place in a queue alone does not tell a customer when it will be connected or what its final upgrade costs will be.
The five-year-plus median reported for projects built in 2025 is a measure of elapsed time from request to commercial operation, not a promise or a fixed waiting period for a new applicant. It also applies to regions with available data, not necessarily every U.S. grid region or every type of project.
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What could make generator interconnection move faster
FERC’s generator interconnection reforms
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order No. 2023 reforms generator interconnection procedures, including the use of cluster studies, in which groups of projects are assessed together. FERC says providers conducting cluster studies must evaluate alternative transmission technologies as part of the study process. That requirement can broaden the options considered; it does not require that every option be installed or guarantee a faster connection.
The technologies FERC identifies for consideration include:
- Advanced conductors and tower lifting, which can be considered as ways to increase the capability of existing transmission corridors.
- Advanced power-flow control and transmission switching, which can help manage how power moves across the network.
- Voltage-source converters, static synchronous compensators, and static VAR compensators, which can support power-flow or voltage management.
Whether an option helps a particular project depends on the grid conditions and study results. Assessing it is not the same as approving, paying for, permitting, or building it.
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Automation and limited fast-track programs
Berkeley Lab reports that grid operators are adopting automation, advanced computing, and AI software resources to speed interconnection procedures and studies. MISO, SPP, and PJM have also used limited-term fast-track programs. These are process responses that may help with parts of the backlog; the available information does not establish them as universal solutions or show that they have eliminated long waits.
Why transmission construction and permitting still matter
Faster studies cannot substitute for transmission capacity that has to be built. The Department of Energy’s 2026 draft National Transmission Needs Study announcement points to demand from data centers, manufacturing, large industry, and broader economic growth as reasons for additional transmission infrastructure. New lines and upgrades also involve siting, permitting, cost allocation, and construction, so changes to queue procedures alone cannot deliver them.
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DOE’s coordinated permitting program describes federal authorization coordination and a two-year process target. That target is not a guarantee that a particular project will be sited, permitted, and built within two years. The distinction matters: an authorization process can be coordinated, while the outcome and construction schedule for an individual line remain uncertain.
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Large customers create a separate connection question
Data centers and other large customers seeking to connect and consume electricity raise a related but distinct issue from generator interconnection queues. A generator queue tracks proposed power plants and storage seeking transmission access; large-load proceedings concern how major customers connect to the grid and how the associated costs and responsibilities are handled.
FERC’s RM26-4 proceeding began after an October 2025 direction to consider timely, orderly large-load interconnection. In June 2026, FERC issued show-cause orders to the six regional grid operators under its jurisdiction, asking 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 set retail rates. The orders initiated a regulatory process; they were not a single nationwide final rule resolving large-load connections.
One consumer-protection concern is who bears the cost if infrastructure is built for a large customer whose expected demand does not fully materialize. The proceedings address the need for workable rules, but the June 2026 orders did not themselves settle that cost responsibility for every project.
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What the backlog could mean for electricity customers
A large queue can signal that proposed generation and storage are competing for grid access, while slow studies and required upgrades may delay projects. But queue capacity by itself does not show how much electricity will be available, whether a particular region faces a shortage, or what a household will pay. Retail rates are set under separate state and utility arrangements, and the cited queue figures do not establish a direct effect on an individual bill.
For customers, the practical point is that a smaller queue is encouraging only when projects advance into operation and the transmission system can support them. The 2025 decline is a real improvement in the active-queue count, but the size of the remaining pipeline, the high withdrawal rate in an older project cohort, and the long timelines for projects built in 2025 all argue against treating it as proof that the bottleneck has cleared.
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