PJM Interconnection LLC

Built World

Managing rapid demand growth and generation queue

West Virginia has no base-load natural gas power plants online. Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that Calpine, a Constellation Energy subsidiary, will build a $1 billion, 500-megawatt gas plant in Marshall County as part of $4.2 billion in energy investments. The investments, drawn in just four weeks, aim to transform a coal-dependent economy into what Morrisey calls 'the battery of the East Coast.'

Updated 7 days ago

Rule Changes

Requesting and receiving emergency orders

Between 1977 and 2000, the Energy Secretary used Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act exactly zero times. Since May 2025, it has been invoked more than 40 times. On May 22, Secretary Chris Wright added another, directing Talen Energy to run a 54-year-old oil-fired unit outside Baltimore beyond its environmental run cap from now through August 19.

Updated 7 days ago

Rule Changes

Managing grid stress from data center expansion

For decades, American households paid roughly the same share of electricity costs regardless of which industries were expanding. AI data centers have broken that arrangement.

Updated May 20

Built World

Struggling to meet demand as capacity prices hit records

America's power grid faces its biggest stress test in decades as data centers running AI models consumed 183 terawatt-hours in 2024, enough to power Pakistan for a year, and that figure is expected to more than double by 2030. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are pouring $370 billion into new facilities, and the grid can't keep up.

Updated May 16

Rule Changes

Must rewrite tariff and interconnection rules for co-located load arrangements

Data centers found a shortcut: park next to a generator and drink power without waiting years for grid upgrades. On Dec. 18, FERC doubled down—unanimously—ordering PJM to rewrite its tariff so co-located mega-load can't stay "invisible" to planning, service definitions, and cost responsibility.

Updated May 15

Built World

Facing unprecedented capacity shortfall and reliability crisis driven by data center demand

Since late 2022, U.S. regulators and utilities have warned that AI-optimized data centers could reshape national power demand, ending an era of flat electricity consumption and forcing rapid buildout of generation and transmission. By early 2026, those warnings have crystallized into concrete challenges. PJM Interconnection's December 2025 capacity auction hit the $333.44/MW-day price cap and failed to meet reliability requirements for the first time in its history. Data centers accounted for $6.5 billion—or 40%—of the auction's $16.4 billion in costs.

Updated May 10

New Capabilities

Piloting AI for interconnection queue management

America's power grid was designed for a world that no longer exists. Built largely in the mid-twentieth century, it now faces a collision: electricity demand is rising at the fastest rate in decades, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and manufacturing reshoring, while the queue of new power projects waiting to connect stretches past 2.6 terawatts—more than twice the grid's current installed capacity. New transmission lines take a decade or more to build. The math doesn't work.

Updated Feb 18