Watchman: The Bastards AI Data Centers Are Causing The Largest Surge In Us Electric Demand In Decades, Resulting In Higher Residential Utility Bills, As Millions Of Americans Will Soon Discover Firsthand

BY SRH

PJM Interconnect, America’s largest electricity grid, serves 65 million people in 13 states and Washington, DC, and, more crucially, feeds Deep State Central’s Loudoun County, Virginia, also known as ‘Data Center Alley’ and one of the world’s major data center hubs. ..

had lately issued many ‘Maximum Generation’ and ‘Load Management’ alerts this summer, as the heat drives power consumption to the limit with air conditioners running at maximum capacity across the eastern part of the United States.

But, as anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows, the deeper issue is that there simply isn’t enough baseload juice to support the continual, insatiable development of power-hungry AI server racks in new data centers.

“There is simply no new capacity to meet new loads,” said Joe Bowring to Bloomberg, president of Monitoring Analytics, PJM Interconnection’s independent monitor. “The solution is to make sure that people who want to build data centers are serious enough about it to bring their own generation.”

There is another solution: raise prices to the stratosphere.

And that is exactly what happened. According to Bloomberg, businesses and households served by the largest US grid will spend $16.1 billion to secure adequate electrical supply to meet rising power demand, particularly from a significant buildout in AI data centers.

Generator payouts for the fiscal year beginning June 2026 surpassed last year’s record of $14.7 billion, according to PJM Interconnection LLC, which oversees the grid that runs from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic. The capacity price per megawatt per day now stands at a record $329.17, up from $269.92 previously.

Constellation Energy and Talen Energy shares rose in late trading in New York on Tuesday as a result of the massive payout.

As millions of Americans may soon discover the hard way, AI data centers are generating the largest spike in US electricity demand in decades, resulting in higher home power bills. That is one of the reasons why the PJM auction, which was previously solely monitored by power traders and plant owners but is now becoming a matter of general interest as electricity rates approach all-time highs, is being keenly followed by lawmakers and consumer activists.

As Bloomberg points out, this is the first auction to contain both a price floor and a price cap, with the range set as $177.24 to $329.17, the clearing price level reached in this auction. Why bother pretending there is an auction? Simply put the price to the maximum and be done with it. Last year’s 600% increase in capacity pricing sparked a political controversy, leading to PJM negotiating an agreement with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to essentially curb rises for two years and make auction prices more predictable after wild swings in recent years.

Despite the increase in costs throughout the grid, the price cap reduced rates for those who experienced the greatest increases in the last auction. Exelon’s Baltimore utility reached $466 last time, while Dominion Energy’s Virginia territory came in about $444.

According to Jon Gordon, policy director of non-profit renewable energy advocate Advanced Energy United, payouts to generators have remained high due to rising demand from massive data centers that are rapidly coming online. New facilities are demanding as much electricity as towns or small cities, coinciding with the closure of older power plants and a lack of investment in new supplies and infrastructure upgrades, he said.

The per-megawatt price topping the 2024 auction and ending at an all-time high bodes favorably for independent power producers such as NRG, Talen, Constellation, and Vistra, according to Barclays analyst Nick Campenella. These generators have spent more than $34 billion this year on transactions to mostly acquire natural gas-fueled power plants to feed the AI boom, particularly in PJM.

A.I. wants your soul; if you tinker with evil, you will surely receive evil.

Righteous anger acts swiftly when necessary. Some forms of evil require us to be quick to speak and quick to act. The slaughter of unborn children, ethnic and economic injustice, abuse (emotional, physical, sexual), sex trafficking, human slavery, adultery, refugee plight, persecution, and other such evils call for urgent, immediate rescue (Proverbs 24:11).