Regional grid operator
Appears in 9 stories
Operating under federal emergency orders through July 3, 2026 amid near-record demand
Seventy percent of America's power lines and transformers are over 25 years old. On June 30, 2026, Secretary Wright issued two emergency orders for the Mid-Atlantic grid after PJM Interconnection forecast demand near 166,000 megawatts—approaching the region's all-time record.
Updated Jul 3
Running record-high capacity auctions while load growth outpaces new supply
Pennsylvania power bills jumped on June 1 as utilities passed through record wholesale prices set by PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for 67 million people across 13 states. PECO's commercial supply charge rose roughly 15 percent, with PPL Electric, Duquesne Light, and FirstEnergy's four Pennsylvania utilities also raising rates.
Updated Jun 1
Piloting AI for interconnection queue management
America's power grid was built largely in the mid-twentieth century for a world that no longer exists. Today it faces electricity demand rising at the fastest rate in decades, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and manufacturing reshoring. The grid must connect 2.6 terawatts of new power projects—more than twice its current capacity—but new transmission lines take a decade or more to build.
Updated May 29
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 May 22
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.
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
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
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
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
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