encoord Releases SAInt 3.9 as FERC Orders Grid Operators to Modernize Large-Load Planning

EDGEWATER, CO, UNITED STATES, June 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered all six U.S. regional grid operators to justify or reform how large loads connect to the grid, and to show within 30 days how they will ensure enough generation to serve them. At stake is whether large loads can connect in years rather than decades, without shifting costs or compromising reliability. At their core, FERC’s orders are a set of modeling and analysis problems. encoord, a Colorado-based energy-technology company, today released version 3.9 of SAInt, its integrated planning software, built specifically for that class of problem.

FERC’s tailored show cause orders, issued under section 206 of the Federal Power Act to PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO, give each operator 60 days to defend its tariffs or file changes. The orders set out five categories of reform and a separate 30-day report, and FERC framed the action as delivering speed to power while protecting consumers, leaving the design to each region.

Four of those five categories describe analyses SAInt already performs. The first asks operators to streamline study processes and to consider alternative transmission technologies. SAInt runs that study, capacity expansion planning, security-constrained production cost modeling, AC power flow, and contingency analysis on one model, and it models the economic and reliability impacts of these advanced transmission technologies, or ATTs, in the same pass.

The second category asks for transparency into transmission costs and an end to cost shifting. SAInt quantifies the full value of a transmission investment, economic and reliability alike, and traces it to the loads that drive it, making cost allocation defensible.

Three more areas, accommodating co-located and behind-the-meter generation, serving flexible large loads, and studying generation that serves electrically proximate loads, are answered through a flexible interconnection study. SAInt produces that study, representing co-located and behind-the-meter resource, as well as the wires to which they are connected and illustrating how generation affects both transmission and generation. Designing the new tariff services is the operators’ own work; the analysis beneath it is SAInt’s.

All of this rests on one capability: SAInt runs economic and reliability planning models in a single platform. The separate 30-day generation report is predicated on the same analysis, whether enough generation will be available to serve new large loads, and at what cost.

“When we read the orders, four of the five reform areas read like a list of the problems SAInt was built to solve. Grid operators now have to answer these questions quickly, and with defensible analysis. We are not claiming to design anyone’s tariff. The planning underneath these reforms, the economics and the reliability assessed together in one model, is exactly what SAInt does, and what 3.9 makes sharper.”

- Carlo Brancucci, Chief Executive Officer of encoord

SAInt 3.9 deepens that analysis, sharpening how a system’s available resources and reserves are represented so its economics and reliability stay consistent across the year. It can show, for example, how a data center paired with on-site generation changes transmission upgrade needs and system reliability under peak conditions.

The approach is not theoretical. Research co-authored by encoord with Camus Energy and Princeton University’s ZERO Lab, funded by Google, found that data centers willing to adjust their usage of the grid during the system’s tightest hours can connect three to five years sooner than conventional large loads, while keeping grid power more than 99 percent of the time and drawing on on-site resources only 40 to 70 hours a year. SAInt transmission and flexibility modeling that demonstrated this.

On July 8, encoord’s Chief Executive Officer Carlo Brancucci and Chief Product Officer Wallace Kenyon will present “Flexible interconnection studies powered by SAInt” at FERC’s technical conference on increasing market and planning efficiency through improved software, in Washington.

SAInt 3.9 is available now. A free trial is at encoord.com/community/saint-trial, and the encoord team offers demonstrations for system operators, utilities, and reliability organizations evaluating integrated economic and reliability planning.

About encoord

encoord is an energy-technology company headquartered in Edgewater, Colorado. Its flagship product is SAInt. SAInt, encoord’s integrated planning software, was developed for economic and reliability planning problems that require iteration between security-constrained production cost modeling, AC power flow simulations, and contingency analysis. Learn more at encoord.com.

Further reading

The FERC action:

FERC Launches Aggressive Targeted Action to Speed Large Load Integration. FERC news release, June 18, 2026. www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-launches-aggressive-targeted-action-speed-large-load-integration

Fact Sheet: FERC Takes Action to Supercharge America’s Grid (Items E-7 to E-12, the five reform categories). FERC, June 18, 2026. www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/fact-sheet-ferc-takes-action-supercharge-americas-grid-efficiency-reliability-and

FERC Quick Reference One-Pager. FERC, June 2026. The five reform areas at a glance. www.ferc.gov/media/ferc-quick-reference-one-pager-0

Interconnection of Large Loads to the Interstate Transmission System, Docket No. RM26-4-000. FERC. www.ferc.gov/rm26-4

From encoord, the method behind the analysis:

Integrated Economic and Reliability Planning. encoord, June 2026. How SAInt plans generation and transmission on one model, so reliability constraints surface early instead of years later. www.encoord.com/resources/blog/integrated-economic-and-reliability-planning

Flexible Interconnection for Large Loads. encoord, June 2026. How SAInt turns a full year of operating conditions into a specific, defensible flexibility profile. www.encoord.com/resources/blog/flexible-interconnection-for-large-loads

Flexible Data Centers: A Faster, More Affordable Path to Power. Camus Energy, encoord, and Princeton University’s ZERO Lab, funded by Google, December 2025. www.encoord.com/resources/blog/flexible-data-centers-study

Quentin Watkins
encoord Inc.
info@encoord.com
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