PJM, the grid operator for 67 million Americans from DC to Chicago, initially proposed excluding large loads like data centers from its capacity market or making them participate in demand response programs. This requirement would have reduced sky-high electricity prices due to supply-demand shortfalls. But PJM revised its proposal this week in response to industry pressure, making participation totally optional–and leaving ratepayers footing a $100 billion bill for data centers' energy needs.

https://evergreenaction.com/memos/pjms-bandaid-proposal-to-address-data-centers?utm_source=policy&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pjm

by ch442

6 comments

  1. Good thing Trump is blocking generation development, that will help significantly.

  2. > This requirement would have reduced sky-high electricity prices due to supply-demand shortfalls

    You know what else would reduce sky-high electricity prices due to supply-demand shortfalls? Solar and wind farms.

  3. Weird approach. A ~1 kW GPU (700W +rack and cooling), costs $1 to rent for an hour. 1 kWh from solar or wind cost a few cents (sic!). So it’s much cheaper to “idle” solar panels or wind turbines than data center racks. Almost always, there will be use for the DC and we just need to start building solar and wind on PGM at scale.

  4. Data centers are the perfect flexible load. PJM stakeholder decision making is not focused on residential and commercial distribution cusomers. But I think this decision will be reversed.

  5. Trump’s war on wind power has one very big exception. The president’s sons are using scarce clean energy to mine for bitcoins. A 200MW wind farm was supplying clean energy to power thousands of homes in Texas. But now it will be sending that electricity to Eric Trump’s bitcoin machines instead.

    Your AI overlords want you to cut down the number of showers you take to conserve water.

    As Texas stares down another sweltering summer and persistent drought conditions, a new analysis reveals that data centers across the state consumed more than 50 billion gallons of water last year – enough to supply the entire city of Austin for several months.

    [https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/state/texas-data-centers-use-50-billion-gallons-of-water#:~:text=6%3A49%20am-,As%20Texas%20stares%20down%20another%20sweltering%20summer%20and%20persistent%20drought,of%20Austin%20for%20several%20months](https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/state/texas-data-centers-use-50-billion-gallons-of-water#:~:text=6%3A49%20am-,As%20Texas%20stares%20down%20another%20sweltering%20summer%20and%20persistent%20drought,of%20Austin%20for%20several%20months).

    Trump tariffs and green energy rollbacks push household electricity bills up 10%

    [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/19/electricity-bills-increase-trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/19/electricity-bills-increase-trump)

  6. Since all other forms of power generation are strangled by build times — this could be a blessing in disguise. The only options are solar & wind. So what’s Chris Wright and his gang of liars going to do when big money players tell him to get the f-ck out of the way? Fold.

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