A rating is only worth what its record shows. Every material change to a PGIQ Rating is logged here, with the date, the development that triggered it, and where the rating stands now. Calls that are still open are marked Pending, so you can hold us to them. If you disagree with one, every market page has a "Dispute this rating" link.
Fundamentals stay strong (78) and connect-and-manage is still the fastest US energization, but a NERC elevated-risk forward outlook plus the Winter Storm Uri record cap it below Prime.
A single national number hid a two-tier gap. The cheap, stable northern zones (SE1/SE2, where Meta built) clear Prime; the import-dependent south (SE4) does not.
The wind-surplus north is favorable; the south depends on northern power over a bottlenecked grid until SuedLink completes, so its access is materially tighter.
A roughly ten-hour peninsula-wide collapse is a real delivery-reliability signal for a prospective large load, framed as risk, not a verdict on any operator.
The Cost pillar rested on the cheap-gas generation cost, but a data center pays EtihadWE's large-load rate of about 26 to 32 fils per kWh (~$70 to $90 per MWh), which is mid-pack globally. With the Prime rating leaning partly on cost, Tier 1 is being re-examined.
The $42 wholesale price omits California's heavy non-bypassable charges, the PCIA, delivery, and Rule 30 upfront transmission. A large load's all-in runs nearer $95 to $155 per MWh, an expensive market, not a moderate one.
A closer look at the proposed ~13 cents/kWh data-centre rate (about $95 US per MWh) puts Quebec mid-pack for a new data center, not lowest in the set; the cheap Rate L applies to general industry, not the load we rate. Reassessing whether the Cost score of 100 overstates the advantage.
A proposed ~13 cents/kWh rate is managed pricing inside an open, low-cost, low-carbon system, not a closure. Price stays the lowest in the set.
A full year without load-shedding meets the reliability-recovery trigger set the prior cycle; the availability read improves but a formal upgrade waits for the recovery to hold through winter.
A statewide 20 MW+ moratorium is one signature from law and would tighten access materially on top of the FERC order.
Whether the conditional, self-supply reopening materially restores access for a large load is the open question; upgrade path if access genuinely improves.
FERC's preliminary finding that PJM's tariff is unjust for large loads puts co-location and cost-allocation economics directly in play.