On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a directive obligating US grid operators to reserve a fast track for the interconnections of data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence. Essentially, new AI facilities gain priority in accessing the electricity grid compared to traditional infrastructure.
However, the measure has an obvious limitation: it doesn't address the structural shortage of energy supply. Therefore, speeding up connection times doesn't solve the problem of actual electricity availability. Consequently, data center operators and their clients will still have to deal with supply constraints in the medium term. In particular, tech SMEs that depend on cloud infrastructure or AI-as-a-service could experience indirect effects on costs and service availability.
We at SHM Studio monitor these regulatory developments because they directly impact the digital value chain of Italian companies. Furthermore, understanding global infrastructure movements helps SMEs plan more informed technology 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
On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published a directive that redesigns the access priorities to the electricity grid in the United States. In particular, grid operators are now required to reserve an accelerated path for interconnection requests from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence. This is a significant regulatory change, which formally recognizes AI as critical national infrastructure.
Until today, network connection requests 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 unblock a bottleneck that was slowing down the expansion of AI computational capacity in the country.
The original source, TechCrunch , however, 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 issue: energy supply doesn't grow by decree
The FERC decision speeds up bureaucratic practices but does not generate new electricity generation capacity. On the contrary, energy demand from AI data centers continues to grow at a steady pace. According to estimates from IEA (International Energy Agency) , data centers could consume more than double their current energy by 2028.
This imbalance between supply and demand creates pressure on energy prices and potential instability in supply. Furthermore, US regional utilities are finding themselves having to manage peak demand that their infrastructure was not designed to support. Consequently, even with priority access, 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 AI competitiveness a strategic priority. For this reason, the FERC directive is expected to be just the first step in a broader regulatory package.
Immediate impact on the global tech supply chain
US regulatory decisions in energy and infrastructure have ripple effects across the entire global tech ecosystem. Therefore, even Italian SMEs using cloud services, AI-as-a-service platforms, or SaaS infrastructure need to pay attention to these developments.
Firstly, large hyperscalers — like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon AWS — have data centers concentrated in specific geographic areas of the USA. If these facilities gain priority access to the grid, their ability to expand AI services increases. Similarly, European providers who rely on American technologies will indirectly benefit from this increased computational availability.
However, there's also a less optimistic scenario. If the energy shortage persists, data center operating costs will rise. Consequently, cloud and AI service prices might 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 considering adopting AI solutions for the
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