White House Meeting Calls for PJM Emergency Power Auction

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Written by Paul Wiseman for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted meeting of Mid-Atlantic governors to ask regional transmission organization PJM to hold emergency power auction to help pay for new power generation to meet data-center demand.

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Group Seeks to Reverse Rising Electric Bills

At a Friday White House meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump, members of his administration, and a group of Mid-Atlantic governors urged PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) to hold an emergency power auction to help cover increasing power demands and reverse the trend of rising consumer electric bills connected to such buildouts.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), PJM was urged to:

• Provide 15-year revenue certainty for new power plants to accelerate the development of reliable power generation.
• Protect ratepayers by limiting the amount existing power plants can be paid in the PJM capacity market.
• Make data centers pay more for new generation than residential customers by allocating costs for any new generation procured to data center customers that have not self-procured new capacity or agreed to be curtailable.
• Take other steps "to ensure more affordable, reliable, and secure electricity for the American people."

Separately, the DOE added that it would seek to "require data centers to pay for the new generation built on their behalf--whether they show up and use the power or not."

The DOE also referred "to building more than $15 billion of reliable baseload power generation" without offering details.

However, Bloomberg quoted an anonymous White House official as saying the auction would be for hyperscalers, who will bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity. Income from the auction is expected to support the $15 billion in new power plants noted in the DOE release.

The White House group stressed the temporary status of these adjustments, and that they are "needed to ensure American businesses across some of the most manufacturing intensive regions of the United States have the power they need, while also ensuring affordable electricity for residents."

Attendees included U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who are vice-chair and chair, respectively of the National Emergency Dominance Council (NEDC).

Also in attendance were governors of several of the states for which PJM manages the electric grid. Those states are: Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Also represented was the District of Columbia. Both political parties were represented.

According to news reports, no one from PJM was invited.

PJM Forecasts Long-Term Demand Growth

PJM is a focal point for this because one of its states, Virginia, leads the U.S. in data center construction, power demand and growth, due primarily to its proximity to government offices in Washington, D.C.

Its 2026 Long-Term Load Forecast Report, released January 14, "confirms the trend of significant growth in electricity demand over the next 20 years but slightly decreases the expected load growth for near-term years compared with last year's report."

Demand through 2032 could drop slightly due to reductions in forecasts of EV use and a drop in the economy. Also in the mix is better management, listed as "improved vetting of requested adjustments for data centers and large loads."

Over the next 15 years, however, it expects summer peak to exceed 241,000 megawatts (MW), much higher than the previous summer record peak of 166,929 MW in 2006.

And PJM sees winter peak load rising faster than the summer peak, averaging 4.0% per year over the next 10 years, and 2.7% over the next 20 years.

Individual states like Illinois have recently moved to improve peak load. For more information, see January 13, 2026, article - Illinois Pushes Battery Storage, Low-Carbon Energy Buildout.

The Big Picture Gets Bigger

Geoffrey S. Lakings, Energy Market Strategist for Industrial Info, said Friday's meeting as a down payment on dealing with the issue on a much larger scale. "Yes, PJM leads the nation in data centers, but the other Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) are seeing much of their own growth. Addressing methods for funding this without emptying consumer pocketbooks is going to be an ongoing challenge, but a necessary one."

By the Numbers

• $15 Billion: Amount expected to be raised by auction, to fund power generation growth
• 15 Years: Length of contract time, during which power prices would be stabilized in the region

Key Takeaways

• The Trump administration hopes this plan will provide power for data center growth without raising utility costs for consumers.

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About IIR News Intelligence
IIR News Intelligence is a trusted source of news for the industrial process and energy markets, powered by Industrial Info Resources' Global Market Intelligence (GMI).

About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 Trillion (USD).