Methodology
Source dates, gaps and terms.
About this
What a record page cannot say: how old a source’s data is, which gaps mean no source rather than no activity, and what the words mean.
Some sources here allow noncommercial use only. Each is credited on its records, and it comes off the site if we stop publishing it.
Map stages
- Planned
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A project a register still lists that is not yet under construction: announced, filed, studied, permitted or contracted. Withdrawn and cancelled ones are not counted.
Why it matters. Most planned capacity is never built, so a planned MW is a request, not a forecast.
- Operating
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A power plant in service: EIA-860M in the US, Global Energy Monitor's GIPT elsewhere. A built project is drawn among the plants, not counted twice.
Why it matters. It is what the grid already has, and the base a new project connects to.
- Idle (idling or retired)
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A plant on standby, out of service, retiring or retired; each row says which. With no stage chosen, retired plants are left out.
Why it matters. An idle plant's site often keeps its grid connection, which a new project can reuse.
Grid and queues
- Interconnection queue
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The public list a grid operator or utility keeps of requests to connect a new power plant, battery or large load to its grid. Since FERC Order 2023 most US operators study them in clusters, not one at a time.
Why it matters. It is the earliest public sign that a project is real, at a stated place and size. Most requests are withdrawn before anything is built, so a queue measures intent, not supply.
- Queue position
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One request in an interconnection queue: its queue ID, the megawatts asked for, where it would connect and the date it asks to start.
Why it matters. The queue ID is how operators, utilities and counterparties name a request. Paste one into search to find its record here.
- Grid operator (ISO or RTO)
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The organization that runs the high-voltage grid and the wholesale power market across a region. The US has seven: CAISO, ERCOT, SPP, MISO, PJM, NYISO and ISO-NE. Elsewhere in the US a utility runs its own system.
Why it matters. Each operator has its own queue rules, study timeline, prices and data terms, so the one a site sits in shapes the cost and the time to connect.
- Substation
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A fenced site where lines meet and transformers step the voltage up or down. A plant or a large load connects at a substation, or on a line near one.
Why it matters. Distance to a substation with room to spare is one of the biggest drivers of connection cost. Whether it has room is rarely public: ask the utility. Substations here come from OpenStreetMap, loaded state by state, Texas first.
- Transmission line
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A high-voltage line that carries power over distance. The maps here show lines of 69 kV and above; the higher the voltage, the more power a line can carry.
Why it matters. A site beside a line of the right voltage can avoid miles of new line, often the costliest part of a connection.
Size and timing
- Capacity (MW)
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The most power a plant can deliver, or a load can draw, at one moment, in megawatts. 1,000 MW is 1 GW. In a queue it is the amount requested, not what gets built.
Why it matters. Capacity sizes the rest of a deal: the connection, the land, the offtake and the cost.
- MW and MWh (storage)
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For a battery, MW is how fast it charges or discharges and MWh is how much energy it holds. A 100 MW, 400 MWh battery runs at full power for four hours.
Why it matters. Value depends on both. A MW figure alone hides how long the battery lasts, which decides what it can earn and which grid needs it meets.
- In-service date
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The date a project is expected to start operating, as its source states it. Close to, not the same as, the commercial operation date (COD): where a queue publishes both, the in-service or backfeed date usually comes first.
Why it matters. Dates slip often, and a slip is a signal: study delays, network upgrades or money. Where a stated date has passed by more than 90 days, the record says so.
Earliest stated date first · More than 90 days past their stated date
- Large load
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One customer drawing a lot of power at one site: a data center, a factory, a hydrogen plant or a mine. Each grid operator sets its own size threshold.
Why it matters. A large load needs the same scarce grid capacity as a new plant, so where loads cluster shows a developer where power is wanted.
Buyers and money
- RFP (request for proposals)
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A buyer's formal call for offers, with requirements and a deadline: a utility asking for power, capacity, storage or a project. Tenders and auctions work the same way.
Why it matters. An RFP is demand a developer can bid into, and its deadline is the clock for the whole response.
- Funding call
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A public offer of money with eligibility rules and a deadline: a grant, a loan or a program, such as a US Department of Energy funding opportunity announcement (FOA).
Why it matters. Public money can pay for early work or lower the cost of capital, but each call fits a narrow kind of project.
- PPA (power purchase agreement)
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A long-term contract to buy a project's output (energy, capacity or certificates) at an agreed price, often for 10 to 20 years.
Why it matters. A signed PPA is usually what makes a project financeable: lenders size the debt on it. In this register, Contracted means a signed grid connection agreement, not a PPA.
Project status
- Announced
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A sponsor or agency has said the project exists; no filing, application or study is on record. For an RFP or funding call: the buyer has said it is coming, and responses are not open yet.
Why it matters. The weakest evidence in the register. Many announced projects never file.
- Filed
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A request has been lodged with a grid operator or a regulator; study or review has not started.
Why it matters. The first formal step: the sponsor has entered a process with deadlines and, usually, a deposit.
- Studied
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The request is inside the operator's or regulator's process: a cluster, impact or facilities study, or an agency review, under way.
Why it matters. Most queue requests sit here, and many end withdrawn. The study sets the grid upgrades a project must pay for.
- Permitted
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The approvals the source tracks have been granted; there is no signed connection agreement or construction yet.
Why it matters. Permits remove a major risk, but which permit depends on the source (federal, state or planning consent). Local permits are not tracked here.
- Contracted
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A grid connection (interconnection) agreement has been signed, or a binding award made; construction has not started.
Why it matters. The strongest sign short of construction that a project will be built. It is not a signed PPA.
- Under construction
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Physical construction is under way, or finished, and commercial operation has not started.
Why it matters. Supply close to arriving, though not every record states a date. These megawatts are not operating yet: count operating capacity from Built.
- Built
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The project is in commercial operation, as its source reports it.
Why it matters. The operating fleet: its owners, its buyers, and the plants that will retire or repower next.
- Standby and out of service
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A built plant that is not running. Standby: available but not normally run (EIA code SB). Out of service: not available, whether the owner expects it back within the next calendar year (OA) or not (OS).
Why it matters. An idle plant keeps its grid connection and site, so its owner may sell, repower or host new load. A plant takes this status when idle units hold half its megawatts or more, unless half is scheduled to retire.
- Withdrawn
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The sponsor withdrew the request.
Why it matters. Most queue requests end this way. A withdrawal frees grid capacity and can mark a site worth a second look.
- Cancelled
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The process was ended by the operator, agency or buyer, not by the sponsor. For an RFP or funding call: the buyer cancelled it.
Why it matters. Unlike a withdrawal, the decision was someone else's, often over a missed milestone or deposit.
- Postponed
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The source lists the project as canceled or indefinitely postponed and does not say which. Today that is EIA's monthly list of canceled or postponed generators.
Why it matters. Not counted as active or as withdrawn. A postponed project can return to the planned list, and its site can be worth a second look.
- Unknown
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The source gave a status we could not place, or none at all.
Why it matters. It does not mean early or inactive: the project could be at any stage. Check the source.
Projects with no known status · Notices with no known status · Full definition
RFP and funding status
- Open
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The notice accepts responses and its deadline has not passed.
Why it matters. The window to act. Deadlines are the buyer's: confirm them at the source.
- Frozen
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The buyer has paused the process without closing or cancelling it.
Why it matters. It may resume, often on new dates: worth an alert.
- Reinstated
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A paused or closed process has been reopened by the buyer.
Why it matters. A second chance to respond, usually with new dates.
- Closed
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The deadline has passed, or the buyer marked the notice complete, and no award has been seen.
Why it matters. Not a statement that nothing was awarded: an award may exist unpublished. Closed notices show who buys, what, and how often.
- Awarded
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The buyer published a contract award or result.
Why it matters. Awards show what was bought and, where the notice names one, who won.
Using this data
- How to cite a record
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Name the record, Inframation, the page's address and the date you read it, then the source register the page names and its release: [Record name]. Inframation. [Page address], read [date]. Source: [register], [release].
Why it matters. A record is only as good as its source. Citing both lets a reader check the fact, and some licenses require the credit printed on the page.