The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is planning to hold an oversight hearing with all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission next week as the agency takes on a prominent role in addressing rising power demand from data centers, according to a person familiar with the plan.
The hearing planned for Wednesday comes as FERC has garnered bipartisan praise for its initial step last month addressing how to connect massive data centers onto the electric grid.
Instead of issuing one uniform rule, the commission sent show-cause orders to six regional grid operators, telling them to examine how large users like data centers connect to the transmission.
Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) and ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) have signaled bipartisan interest in the issue and both reacted positively to FERC’s action.
