When the PUC tariff is the clock

A queue row tells you someone asked for power. A state public utility commission tariff case tells you what that power might cost, on what terms, and under which clock. Watt Brief treats a new or amended large-load tariff, rider, special contract docket, or commission order that names data-center or large-load service as a delta — one identity, one document ID, one reason it binds — not as background color for a press kit.

What counts as a tariff delta

The identity is still source + document ID + event class. The headline names what moved: a proposed large-load rate schedule, an interim rider, a commission order approving or rejecting a special contract, a cost-allocation filing that restates who pays for upgrades, or a notice that reopens comments. County and utility stay if the commission page prints them. MW stays only if the filing states or bounds it. We do not invent document IDs. Teaching examples stay labeled EXAMPLE. Live rows use the ID the commission printed.

Where these clocks actually appear

• State PUC / PSC e-docket systems — applications, tariffs, riders, and special contracts that name large load, data centers, or hyperscale service.
• Utility tariff books and advice letters posted with a docket number — the live schedule beats the slide deck.
• Commission orders and notices with comment or compliance deadlines — the hearing clock on the rate case is the binding date, not the announcement date.
• Companion FERC or ISO paper only when the same campus story has a separate federal identity — that is a different row, not a louder title on the state case.

Why the tariff binds before the ribbon-cutting

Site-selection decks sell MW and acreage. The tariff case sells the bill. An approved rider can move the all-in cost of serving a campus. A rejected special contract can strand a site visit you were about to burn. A cost-allocation order can push upgrade timing later than the interconnection queue alone implied. None of that is a $/kW comps product and none of it is a trade-magazine feature. It is a pointer to the commission copy you can open.

Related dates sit on the same row: filing date, notice date, comment deadline, hearing date, order date, effective date. They are not four separate headlines. If the same document ID later gets an amended tariff sheet or a rehearing order, that is a new delta on the same identity — not a duplicate with a restated lede.

What it is not

A tariff row is not proof the campus will get built. Operators walk. Commissions reverse. Utilities refile. It is also not a substitute for the interconnection-queue row or the county rezoning clock — those are separate identities when the sources are separate. Open the docket URL. Match the document ID. If the large-load or data-center language is not on that page, the row is not for you yet.