PJM monitor pins $23 billion in price increases on data centers

How it leans Cost allocation favors flexible large loads · Independent academic

✓What's documented Cites the PJM Independent Market Monitor's published 2026 Q1 State of the Market report; author directs energy studies at the University of Florida.

A University of Florida energy economist walks through why making data centers pay their share is harder than it sounds, citing the PJM market monitor's finding that expected data center demand was a primary driver of $23 billion in customer price increases running through at least 2028. The mechanism he flags is coincident peak demand: data centers can modulate load to dodge the peak hours that determine cost allocation, in a way households cannot. When speculative projects trigger upgrades and then shrink or never open, the utility still earns on the asset and other customers absorb the cost.

• The PJM Independent Market Monitor's 2026 Q1 State of the Market report identified expected data center demand as a primary reason for $23 billion in customer price increases lasting until at least the end of 2028.
• Costs are typically allocated by coincident peak demand, the moment all customers collectively draw the most power.
• Data centers can automatically curtail load to avoid contributing to system peak, a pattern already seen with Texas crypto mining operations.
• Every state except Georgia, Idaho and Louisiana has a consumer advocate office, but many are legally barred from favoring one customer class over another in allocation disputes.
• If a data center is never built or uses less than projected, the utility's already-incurred infrastructure costs get spread among remaining customers.