PJM Interconnection, the largest electricity grid operator in the United States, will curtail supply to data centers and other very large customers during power shortages, according to reporting published by TechCrunch on July 28, 2026.
The decision followed a capacity auction that failed to secure enough new generation to cover projected demand growth. PJM serves 13 states and the District of Columbia, a footprint that includes the largest concentration of data center load in the country. Curtailment will not begin until June 2027 and will apply only to facilities of 50 megawatts and larger.
Grid conditions this summer illustrated the pressure. The Department of Energy issued two emergency orders permitting PJM to curtail data centers and to waive pollution limits on generating plants as a heat wave pushed demand toward an all-time peak of 166,147 MW.
Federal regulators have opened a broader review. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued show cause orders to the six largest US grid operators, directing each to defend or rewrite its interconnection rules for large loads and to establish a defined process for handling gigawatt scale requests.
Projections for the coming decade explain the urgency. Analysts estimate data centers could account for roughly 20% of all electricity generated in the United States by 2035. Individual states have begun responding with tax policy, and Virginia imposed a consumption tax of $0.011 per kilowatt hour on electricity used by data centers beginning July 1, 2026.
Source: TechCrunch - https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/data-centers-may-face-temporary-power-cuts-to-prevent-blackouts-on-largest-us-grid/