Existing and forecast data center load made up 9%, or $10.48/MWh, of the wholesale price of power in the PJM Interconnection this year through July, according to the grid operator’s independent market monitor.
That cost came via PJM’s capacity market, and doesn’t include data center-related increases in the price of electricity or transmission, Monitoring Analytics said in its 2026 first-half state of the market report released earlier this month.
In PJM’s last four capacity auctions, existing and forecast data center load growth resulted in a combined total increase in capacity market revenues of $29.4 billion, according to the report. “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 first seven months this year, the total cost of wholesale power surged 46% to $116.53/MWh, or $56.7 billion, up from $79.57/MWh, or $38 billion, in the same period last year, driven by jumps in energy and capacity costs, according to a presentation by the market monitor on Monday to PJM’s Members Committee.
PJM wholesale power price surged in 2026
In the first seven months this year, average peak load increased by 1.7%, or 1,721 MWh; average off-peak load increased by 2.6%, or 2,281 MWh; and real-time hourly average load grew by 2.2%, or 2,061 MWh, according to the presentation.
So far this year, wind farms produced 4.5% of all electricity in PJM and solar facilities produced 3.5%, up from 3.7% and 2.9% from last year, respectively.
PJM has about 13 GW of wind on its system, with a 34.2% capacity factor in the first half of this year, according to the first half report. It has 16.3 GW of solar, with a 21.4% capacity factor in the first six months this year.
PJM also had 57 GW of gas-fired, combined cycle units, 37.7 GW of coal-fired generation, 33.5 GW of nuclear capacity and 7.6 GW of hydro units, according to the report.
