The hardest part of building a power plant is now plugging it in. Every new plant needs the grid operator’s approval before it can connect. By the early 2020s the projects waiting for that approval added up to more capacity than the entire U.S. grid. AI data centers sit idle until those new plants come online. Their owners would gladly pay to move faster, but grid operators do not sell places in line. Amazon got around that by paying $83 million for a permitted Oregon solar project already in line. Sites that already have a connection are gaining value too. The Three Mile Island restart for Microsoft will borrow a gas plant’s connection so it can start sooner. A fusion developer plans to build on a retired coal site and reuse the connection the coal plant left behind. Owners of old plants and stalled projects could find that their grid connection is now their most valuable asset.