"Data center load growth is the primary reason for recent and expected capacity market conditions, including total forecast load growth, the tight supply and demand balance, and high prices. But for data center growth, both actual and forecast, the capacity market would not have seen the same tight supply demand conditions."
"The price impacts on customers have been very large and are not reversible. The price impacts will be even larger in the near term unless the issues associated with data center load are addressed in a timely manner."
"According to the report, the total cost per megawatt-hour (MWh) of wholesale power rose from $77.78 in the first three months of 2025 to $136.53 in the same period this year, an increase of 75.5 percent year over year. Monitoring Analytics didn't mince words in its report, identifying datacenter load growth as the main driver of recent capacity market conditions and rising prices in PJM."
Wholesale power costs in the PJM Interconnection have nearly doubled over the past year as datacenter demand increased. Monitoring Analytics, the market monitor for PJM, reported that total wholesale power cost per megawatt-hour rose from $77.78 in the first three months of 2025 to $136.53 in the same period in 2026, a 75.5% year-over-year increase. The report identifies datacenter load growth as the primary driver of capacity market conditions, including forecast load growth, tight supply and demand balance, and high prices. It states that price impacts on customers are very large and not reversible. It also warns that price impacts will be even larger in the near term unless issues tied to datacenter load are addressed promptly.
#pjm-interconnection #datacenter-energy-demand #wholesale-electricity-prices #capacity-markets #grid-reliability
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