Cite the number
Large-load disclosure · one operator, one file · a dated series

One U.S. grid operator publishes how much of its interconnection queue is AI data centers.

DECLARED AI LOAD (DAT-AI)5,266 MW
Free to cite · CC BY 4.0 · no permission needed
How much declared AI load?
5,266 MW — 12 requests
39% of the 13,611.9 MW that NYISO publishes as classified load in its queue, under the operator's own DAT-AI code — which its key defines as “AI Datacenter” — in the file read from NYISO on Oct. 3, 2026, whose rows carry updates through Sept. 30, 2026. The operator states the scope of that total in the table itself: it “excludes withdrawn and in-service load projects”. The end-use code appears on 51 of the 74 requests: withdrawn rows are left blank, and a few others are.
Who says so?
The operator itself
The breakdown is NYISO's own table, titled MW By End-Use on the Load Project Tracking tab. The MW and the labels are the operator's; the request counts are ours, from the individual rows. Here it is, whole:
Can you compare AI vs crypto “seriousness”?
No — that measures age, not intent
95% of the AI-datacenter class entered the queue in 2025; 100% of the cryptocurrency-mining class entered between 2018 and 2021. A request filed in 2019 has had years to move through studies that a request filed in 2025 has not yet had. That is arithmetic about time, not evidence about either industry. NYISO publishes end-use totals and submission-year totals as separate tables and does not cross the two — the cross above is ours, computed from the individual rows.
What’s missing from the file?
The signature date
NYISO’s status ladder names the executed interconnection agreement explicitly — 11, IA Completed — and in this file no load request sits at 11. The IA Tender Date column is empty on all 74 rows.

What this record cannot tell you

One jurisdiction+
NYISO is New York. Nothing here supports a national figure, and we do not publish one from it.
Who assigns the code? Not established+
The file publishes the taxonomy and the values; it does not say whether the developer selects the class or the operator assigns it. Attributing the classification to the applicant would go beyond the record — ours and anyone else’s.
The list is not a census+
NYISO’s interconnection process reaches load above a threshold set in its tariff; requests below it go to the transmission owner’s own procedure and never appear in this file. We have not verified that threshold and do not state one.
Withdrawn rows carry no end-use code+
Every withdrawn row in this file has the column blank. A withdrawal rate by load type cannot be computed from it — not by us, and not by anyone else working from the same file.

How we read it — the arithmetic, reproduced

74 rowsthe workbook's load tab, 17,672.0 MW
→
− 3,078.9 MWwithdrawn, by NYISO's own count
→
= 14,593.1 MWnot withdrawn (our reading)
→
13,611.9 MWthe operator's classified total — matches ours to the decimal
→
Δ 981.2 MWsix rows with no end-use code, four already in service
Why we show the reconciliation+

The workbook has 74 load rows totalling 17,672.0 MW. Subtracting the 3,078.9 MW NYISO reports as withdrawn leaves 14,593.1 MW not withdrawn. The operator’s own end-use table totals 13,611.9 MW, and our independent reading of that classified population matches it to the decimal. The 981.2 MW difference is six not-withdrawn rows carrying no end-use code, four of them already in commercial service and two awaiting a scoping meeting.

We report the reconciliation rather than a single number because a survey that cannot reproduce an operator’s own arithmetic has no business describing that operator’s file. A collector repeats this comparison against every new file, and raises an alarm if it ever stops matching.

Source. NYISO Interconnection Queue workbook, Load Projects and Load Project Tracking tabs, in the file read from NYISO on Oct. 3, 2026, whose rows carry updates through Sept. 30, 2026, published at nyiso.com/interconnections. NYISO republishes this file at the same address and overwrites the previous one; we keep each file we read.

Chain of custody. Retrieved from NYISO’s published address, www.nyiso.com/documents/20142/1407078/NYISO-Interconnection-Queue.xlsx, on Oct. 3, 2026. The file name carries no date, so we give two: the day we read it and the latest Last Updated Date on its rows, Sept. 30, 2026. The figures on this page were then recomputed from the file a second time, independently. SHA-256 8158c0eb16ef93ce0a4f9f0dd8316d5680edbefbaeaab3758d7eded2e53c8e9b.

What we do not publish. No project or company name appears on this page. It is not needed for anything stated here.

Independence. NYISO is not affiliated with LOADSTAR and does not endorse this analysis. The end-use codes and totals are NYISO’s published data; the reading of them is ours.

Context, dated. On July 14, 2026, New York’s Executive Order 62 paused discretionary state environmental permits for new data centers of 50 MW and above. The order does not reach grid interconnection and does not alter the queue file this page reads — its own text cites the load requests sitting in the NYISO queue.