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2w ago

White House, 13 Governors Press PJM to Run 15-Year Auction to Make Tech Fund New Power

PJM is reviewing the request as data-center load outpaces supply, with relief years away from new gas, coal or nuclear projects.

An aerial view of an Amazon Web Services Data Center known as US East 1 in Ashburn, Virginia, on October 20, 2025.
An aerial view of a 33 megawatt data center, bottom left, with closed-loop cooling system, amid warehouses on Oct. 20, 2025, in Vernon, California. A surge in demand for AI infrastructure is fueling a boom in data centers across the country and around the globe. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/TNS)
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Overview

  • The proposal calls for an emergency PJM auction offering 15-year contracts worth about $15 billion, with the Energy Department saying data centers would pay for generation built on their behalf.
  • PJM said it is evaluating the principles and separately released a 14-page plan to speed data-center connections, including use of a backstop reliability mechanism.
  • Strain on the system is evident: PJM’s latest capacity auction cost $16.4 billion for 134 gigawatts yet still missed its reliability requirement by more than 6.6 gigawatts, and peak demand is projected to rise 17% by 2030.
  • Administration officials signaled a preference for new baseload from natural gas, coal and nuclear, but projects face multi-year permitting and equipment bottlenecks, with a key turbine maker sold out until 2028.
  • The push aims to shield households from rising bills tied to data-center growth, as analyses cite steep local price increases and federal modeling shows data centers could consume 6.7%–12% of U.S. electricity by 2028.