On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a directive compelling US grid operators to reserve a fast track for interconnections of data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence. Essentially, new AI facilities will receive priority in accessing the electrical grid over traditional infrastructure.
However, the measure has an obvious limitation: it does not address the structural shortage of energy supply. Therefore, accelerating connection times does not solve the problem of actual electricity availability. Consequently, data center operators and their clients will still have to contend with supply constraints in the medium term. In particular, tech SMEs that rely on cloud infrastructure or AI-as-a-service will likely experience indirect effects on the costs and availability of services.
At SHM Studio, we monitor these regulatory developments because they directly impact the digital value chain of Italian companies. Furthermore, understanding global infrastructural movements helps SMEs plan more informed technological investments. In summary, the FERC directive is an important signal: AI is now considered critical infrastructure, with all that this entails in terms of political and market priorities.
The FERC Directive: A Fast Track for AI
June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a directive that redefines grid access priorities in the United States. In particular, grid operators are now required to reserve an accelerated pathway for interconnection requests from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence. This is a significant regulatory change, which formally recognizes AI as critical national infrastructure.
To date, network connection requests have often followed multi-year queues. In fact, according to US energy sector data, the average waiting times for commercial interconnection exceeded three years. Therefore, the FERC measure aims to unlock a bottleneck that was slowing down the expansion of AI computational capacity in the country.
The original source, TechCrunch, however, it highlights a critical point: the directive does not address the structural shortage of energy supply. Therefore, having a fast track does not guarantee that electricity will actually be available.
The Unresolved Knot: Energy Supply Doesn't Grow by Decree
The FERC decision speeds up paperwork but doesn't generate new electricity generation capacity. In contrast, energy demand from AI data centers continues to grow at a sustained pace. According to estimates from International Energy Agency, Data centers could consume more than double the current energy by 2028.
This imbalance between supply and demand creates pressure on energy prices and potential supply instabilities. Furthermore, US regional utilities are finding themselves having to manage demand spikes that their infrastructure was not designed to support. Consequently, even with fast-tracking, many data center projects could face delays related to the physical capacity of the grid.
Despite this, the political signal is clear: the US administration considers competitiveness in AI a strategic priority. For this reason, the FERC directive is expected to be only the first step of a broader regulatory package.
Immediate impact on the global technology supply chain
US regulatory decisions in the energy and infrastructure sectors have cascading effects on the entire global technology ecosystem. Therefore, even Italian SMEs that use cloud services, AI-as-a-service platforms, or SaaS infrastructure need to pay attention to these developments.
First, the large hyperscalers—like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon AWS—have data centers concentrated in specific geographic areas in the US. If these facilities gain priority network access, their ability to expand AI services will increase. Similarly, European providers that depend on American technologies will indirectly benefit from this increased computational availability.
However, there is also a less optimistic scenario. If the energy shortage persists, data center operating costs will increase. Consequently, cloud and AI service prices could face upward pressure in the medium term. This is a factor that Italian tech SMEs should include in their technology budget planning for 2027-2028.
For example, companies that are considering adopting AI solutions for
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