- Electricity bills projected to surge over 20% in PJM territory this summer
- PJM criticized for delaying auctions and pausing new plant applications
- Pennsylvania governor threatens to leave PJM if it can’t reduce costs and connect power plants faster
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania July 9 (Reuters) – America’s largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.
Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of PJM Interconnection’s territory, which covers 13 states – from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey – serving 67 million customers in a region with the most data centers in the world.
The governor of Pennsylvania is threatening to abandon the grid, the CEO has announced his departure and the chair of PJM’s board of managers and another board member were voted out.
The upheaval at PJM started a year ago with a more than 800% jump in prices at its annual capacity auction. Rising prices out of the auction trickle down to everyday people’s power bills.
Now PJM is barreling towards its next capacity auction on Wednesday, when prices may rise even further.
The auction aims to avoid blackouts by establishing a rate at which generators agree to pump out electricity during the most extreme periods of stress on the grid, usually the hottest and coldest days of the year.