Here's how Front-of-the-Meter Netting closes the gap — in under two minutes.
New data centers and generators want to connect today. But the grid is built for 100% delivery on peak hours — and this level of certainty takes years of study and upgrades.
Some grid operators offer a faster path: connect now, accept curtailment when the wires get crowded. It's a start.
Large load developers will try to manage this risk by pairing a battery next door. But the grid doesn't see the two as connected — it will curtail the load AND dispatch the battery in the same instant, treating a coordinated pair like two strangers.
In real time, the paired battery's availability sets the load's guaranteed operating floor. Together, they show up on the grid as one predictable, net-zero draw — not two unrelated resources.
The load runs firm. The battery does the work. And it's all verified the next day during settlement, with no new real-time systems for the grid to build.
Developers privately finance the flexible capacity the grid needs. Utilities de-risk every long-lead upgrade.
And once that upgrade is done, both assets simply convert to normal, firm service — no permanent carve-out, no cost to ratepayers.
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Join the allianceThe spine above is the whole idea. These four sections are for anyone doing real diligence — regulators, utility teams, and developers who want the mechanics.
Some grid operators already offer a faster path onto the grid: connect immediately, ahead of full network upgrades, and accept the risk of curtailment when the wires get crowded during peak conditions.
ERCOT, in Texas, calls this "Connect and Manage" — it's why interconnection there has historically moved faster than in many other U.S. markets.
That same logic is now extending to large loads. ERCOT's planned PCLR program will let big loads energize early on the same terms: operating like an energy-only generator, flexing off the grid during congestion, until upgrades are complete.
A simpler-looking option is to put the load and its battery behind a single meter (BTM) — but that's an insular fix. It traps both assets behind one connection point, creating a blind spot for the grid operator.
It also raises awkward questions: when does that battery recharge? And when upgrades are finally built, does the battery just become a stranded asset with no access to the market?
FTM-Netting avoids this by keeping both assets independently metered and fully visible to the grid — while still privately covering for each other during the interim period.
The financial engine behind FTM-Netting is the Capacity Attribution Contract (CAC). Under this tolling arrangement, the paired resource acts as a physical buffer, absorbing unpredictable grid curtailment on behalf of the load.
In exchange, the load underwrites that capacity — giving the resource's owner the creditworthy revenue stream needed to unlock construction financing.
It's an interim commercial bridge: the load gets firm service now, while the utility builds the permanent upgrade on its own timeline.
Speed matters because growth has another option. When large loads can't find a fast, coordinated path onto the shared grid, they can build their own power instead.
Private generation, off-grid, running for decades outside shared oversight and outside the system that funds upgrades for everyone else.
FTM-Netting offers a faster path onto the grid instead — keeping that growth working for the whole system, rather than going around it.