Existing and forecast data center load accounted for 9 percent, or $10.48 per megawatt-hour, of the wholesale price of power in the PJM Interconnection through July this year, according to the grid operator's independent market monitor. That cost arrived through PJM's capacity market and excludes data center related increases in the price of electricity or transmission.
Monitoring Analytics published the figures in its 2026 first-half state of the market report. Across PJM's last four capacity auctions, existing and forecast data center load growth produced a combined increase in capacity market revenues of $29.4 billion. "This total will continue to grow until the issues associated with the addition of large data center loads are addressed," the market monitor said in the report.
Total wholesale power costs in the first seven months of the year climbed 46 percent to $116.53 per megawatt-hour, or $56.7 billion, up from $79.57 per megawatt-hour, or $38 billion, in the same period last year. Rising energy and capacity costs drove the increase. Average peak load grew 1.7 percent, average off-peak load grew 2.6 percent, and real-time hourly average load grew 2.2 percent.
Wind farms produced 4.5 percent of all electricity in PJM so far this year and solar facilities produced 3.5 percent, up from 3.7 percent and 2.9 percent respectively a year earlier. PJM carries about 13 gigawatts of wind with a 34.2 percent capacity factor in the first half, and 16.3 gigawatts of solar at a 21.4 percent capacity factor. The territory also holds 57 gigawatts of combined cycle gas, 37.7 gigawatts of coal, 33.5 gigawatts of nuclear, and 7.6 gigawatts of hydro.
Source: Utility Dive - https://www.utilitydive.com/news/data-center-load-pjm-wholesale-market/828917/