D.C. Circuit upholds FERC Order 2023 — the study-delay fees are rate terms, not penalties

On July 31, 2026, the D.C. Circuit denied the petitions for review in Advanced Energy United v. FERC and upheld FERC’s Order No. 2023 as a lawful exercise of the agency’s remedial authority. The rule forced every jurisdictional transmission provider off serial, project-by-project interconnection studies and onto a clustered process backed by withdrawal fines and firm study deadlines. The court held that the study-delay late fees are not civil penalties but rate terms FERC could adopt under Section 206. The opinion reviewed here does not turn Order No. 2023 into a data-center or load-serving holding; co-location language in the rule governs multiple generating facilities sharing a point of interconnection.

• D.C. Circuit upholds FERC Order 2023 interconnection reforms – The court sustained the withdrawal-penalty ladder and firm 150-day study deadlines with automatic late fees as Section 206 ratemaking, not penalties.
• Withdrawal-fine threshold and late-fee framework survive review – FERC’s 100% cost-increase threshold for fine-free withdrawal at the facilities-study stage was held not arbitrary and capricious.
• MeitY tells Lok Sabha India data-center capacity rose from 375 MW to ~1,575 MW – An August 5, 2026 written reply reports roughly 4.2x growth since 2020 and cites the SHANTI Act as a clean-power route including small modular reactors.
• Fluence secured ~$850M of data-center business through July – The figure is business secured, not Q3 revenue; Fluence reported ~$649.8M revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2026.
• BIS and BEE codes cited for India data-center efficiency – The reply points to LITD 31 standards on PUE, CUE, CER and WUE and BEE’s ECBC 2017 / ECSBC 2024, without adding a new mandatory compliance regime.