The grants represent the second round of funding from the IIJA’s $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program.

The data center dilemma centers first on a familiar mismatch of timescales. Utilities and their regulators tend to plan based on the small, incremental demand growth. But development and the power demand it generates move at ever-increasing digital speed.

The direction FERC takes during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term is up in the air, but the commission may spend some of its time attempting to cut costs to consumers.

Washington insiders warn solar developers that Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are coming for tax credits and other clean energy incentives in the IRA.

To move forward in the second Trump administration, both Democrats and Republicans will need to depoliticize the debate around climate and energy issues as they face the impacts of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather, while meeting growing power demand from artificial intelligence, data centers and new manufacturing.

Change is coming to FERC after Tuesday's election, but the policies the agency oversees are rarely top of mind during campaigns, so it is unclear how much will be different.