Power prices are up 76% on America's biggest grid, and a watchdog is pointing fingers | TechCrunch

"Wholesale prices for one megawatt-hour of electricity rose to $136.53, up from $77.78 at the same time last year. The market monitor pulled no punches. "The price impacts on customers have been very large and are not reversible," Monitoring Analytics wrote. "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.""

"PJM is a ripe target for such criticism. In 2022, just as data center construction was ramping up, the grid operator paused applications for new generating sources, citing a years-long backlog. It only recently started accepting new requests. Meanwhile, electricity demand from data centers has risen dramatically. The PJM grid includes Northern Virginia, a part of the country that is thick with data centers."

"Monitoring Analytics was direct that without rising demand from data centers, "the capacity market would not have seen the same tight supply demand conditions, the same high prices observed." It added that "the current supply of capacity in PJM is not adequate to meet the demand from large data center loads and will not be adequate in the foreseeable future.""

Wholesale electricity prices in the PJM Interconnection nearly doubled over the past year, rising to $136.53 per megawatt-hour from $77.78. Monitoring Analytics identified data centers as the main driver and said PJM did not handle their surging demand adequately. The monitor warned that price impacts on customers are very large and not reversible, and that impacts will grow unless data center load issues are addressed quickly. PJM paused applications for new generating sources in 2022 due to a backlog, then only recently began accepting new requests. Data center electricity demand has risen sharply, including in Northern Virginia. The monitor stated that without data center demand, capacity market conditions and high prices would not have been as severe, and that current capacity is insufficient now and in the foreseeable future.

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