2027 Event Agenda

Note to program committee: Project 2026-02 is an active NERC standards-development effort, and several milestones referenced here (Board adoption, regulatory approval, threshold finalization, and the Phase 2 launch) are scheduled to occur between this submission and the March 2027 conference. The tutorial is structured so that its framework and practical guidance are stable, while milestone status and specific design outcomes will be updated to reflect actual developments. We anticipate refining the description text as the conference approaches to reflect the current regulatory posture and to support audience recruitment.

Course description:

Data centers and AI compute facilities have moved from a load-growth headline to a concrete NERC compliance obligation, and utilities are on the front line of integrating them. NERC's Project 2026-02 has established a new registration category, the Computational Load Entity, and a set of dedicated Reliability Standards, CLE-001, CLE-002, and CLE-003, that will reshape how utilities plan for, interconnect, and monitor large computational loads. This tutorial gives utility teams a working command of the compliance landscape as it actually stands at the time of the conference.

The regulatory timeline is moving quickly. Registry criteria establishing the Computational Load Entity are expected to take effect on January 1, 2027, with NERC Board adoption of the Phase 1 CLE standards anticipated in December 2026 and regulatory approval and compliance phase-in advancing through 2027. Phase 2, addressing the requirements deferred from Phase 1, is expected to begin in 2027, concurrent with this conference. Because this tutorial sits in the middle of an active standards-development process, the framework and practical guidance are fixed, while the status of specific milestones, threshold values, and open design decisions will be presented as they actually stand in March 2027.

The session is led by members of NERC's Large Load Working Group (LLWG), including representatives from NERC, ERCOT, Danovo, and utilities. It is built around the decisions and ambiguities that affect a utility's planning, interconnection, and compliance functions, rather than a recitation of standard text.