The price of keeping the lights on rose 1,053% in three auctions.
Every year, PJM — the grid operator for 67 million people from Virginia to Illinois — runs an auction to buy enough power-plant capacity to cover future peak demand. Those auction costs flow into electric bills. The price just went from $28.92 to $333.44 per megawatt-day, and PJM's own independent market monitor says data centers are the primary reason.
Next auction (2028/29 delivery): opens June 30, 2026
Results expected mid-July 2026. FERC re-approved a price collar (~$325/MW-day cap) on April 28, 2026; analysts estimate the auction would clear near $530/MW-day without it. We'll publish the results and the household math here the day they drop. Source.
Clearing price, last four auctions
RTO-wide price, $/MW-day. 2026/27 and 2027/28 hit the FERC-approved price cap — without the cap they would have cleared higher.
2025/26 also saw zone-level spikes: Dominion (VA) cleared at $444.26 and BGE (MD) at $466.35/MW-day before the cap flattened zonal prices.
Where the price spiked: every zone, every auction
RTO-wide averages hide the local pain. PJM clears separate prices for constrained Locational Deliverability Areas — and the spikes land where transmission is tight and load is growing. Base Residual Auction clearing prices, $/MW-day.
| LDA | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTO | 59.37 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 76.53 | 140.00 | 50.00 | 34.13 | 28.92 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| DPL SOUTH | 119.13 | 120.00 | 225.42 | 119.77 | 187.87 | 165.73 | 97.86 | 69.95 | 426.17 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| PS | 219.00 | 215.00 | 225.42 | 119.77 | 187.87 | 204.29 | 97.86 | 49.49 | 53.60 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| PS NORTH | 219.00 | 215.00 | 225.42 | 119.77 | 187.87 | 204.29 | 97.86 | 49.49 | 53.60 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| DEOK | · | · | · | · | 130.00 | 140.00 | 71.69 | 34.13 | 96.24 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| BGE | · | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.30 | 86.04 | 200.30 | 126.50 | 69.95 | 73.00 | 466.35 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| COMED | · | 120.00 | 215.00 | 202.77 | 188.12 | 195.55 | 68.96 | 34.13 | 28.92 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| EMAAC | 119.13 | 120.00 | 225.42 | 119.77 | 187.87 | 165.73 | 97.86 | 49.49 | 53.60 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| MAAC | 119.13 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 86.04 | 140.00 | 95.79 | 49.49 | 49.49 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| PEPCO | 119.13 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 86.04 | 140.00 | 95.79 | 49.49 | 49.49 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| SWMAAC | 119.13 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 86.04 | 140.00 | 95.79 | 49.49 | 49.49 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| ATSI | 114.23 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 76.53 | 171.33 | 50.00 | 34.13 | 28.92 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| ATSI-CLEVELAND | 114.23 | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 76.53 | 171.33 | 50.00 | 34.13 | 28.92 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| PL | · | 120.00 | 164.77 | 100.00 | 86.04 | 140.00 | 95.79 | 49.49 | 49.49 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| DOM | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 444.26 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| NORTH | · | 120.00 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| SOUTH 1 | · | 120.00 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| WEST 2 | · | 120.00 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| DAYTON | · | · | · | · | 76.53 | 140.00 | 50.00 | 34.13 | 28.92 | 269.92 | 329.17 | 333.44 |
| JCPL | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 329.17 | 333.44 |
Highlighted= cleared above the RTO price that year. “·” = PJM did not model that LDA separately (it cleared at the parent price). Source: PJM Resource Clearing Prices Auction Summary (public auction report) — re-ingested after every auction.
What that means for a typical home
Capacity costs are allocated to customers by their contribution to system peak. A typical US home contributes roughly 1–1.8 kW at peak; we use 1.4 kW and show the range. The math is three steps and fully public: methodology.
| Delivery year | $/kW-year | Typical home / mo | Auction total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | $10.56 | ~$1.23 | $2.2B |
| 2025/26 | $98.52 | ~$11.49 | $14.7B |
| 2026/27 | $120.15 | ~$14.02 | $16.1B |
| 2027/28 | $121.71 | ~$14.20 | $16.4B |
The increase: ~$13/month (range $9–$16) for a typical home in the current delivery year (2026/27) versus 2024/25. Applying the market monitor's data-center attribution of 40–63%, the data-center share of that increase is ~$4–$10/month.
Who the market monitor says is responsible
Monitoring Analytics is PJM's court-appointed-style independent watchdog. Its published analyses of the last three auctions:
- 2025/26$9.3B · 63%
IMM: $9.3B (63%) of the cost increase attributable to data-center load growth.
Source - 2026/27$7.3B · 45%
IMM: including forecast data-center load increased auction revenues by $7.27B (82.1%) vs. a no-growth counterfactual.
Source - 2027/28$6.5B · 40%
IMM: $6.5B (40%) of total auction cost attributable to data-center load — $6.2B of it to data centers not yet built.
Source
Across all three auctions: IMM: data-center load forecasts made up ~45% of $47.2B in capacity costs across PJM's last three auctions. Source. The monitor's sharpest finding: most of the 2027/28 data-center cost — $6.2 billion — is for data centers that have not been built yet. Ratepayers are pre-paying for forecast demand.
Also coming: a first-of-its-kind “backstop” auction. PJM's first 'backstop reliability auction' — centralized procurement of ~9 GW for 2028/29 aimed at shortfalls from large-load (data center) growth; bilateral phase runs Sept 2026–Mar 2027. Source.
What's your share?
Enter your address and we'll compute the data-center slice of your household's capacity-cost increase — plus every tracked facility within 25 miles, the tax breaks they got, and the water they draw.
What this is not
- Not a line item on your bill. How and when capacity costs reach retail bills varies by utility, rate class, and state regulation — some states shield or delay pass-through.
- Not a causation proof.The data-center percentages are the independent market monitor's published attributions; the industry disputes parts of them. We show the monitor's numbers, linked, and let you read both sides.
- Not cherry-picked. Every number on this page comes from a PJM auction report, PJM press release, or Monitoring Analytics publication — all linked below, all checked against the primary document.
Sources
- 2024/25: PJM 2024/25 BRA report
- 2025/26: PJM auction results (Inside Lines)
- 2025/26: IMM analysis of the 2025/26 BRA
- 2026/27: PJM auction results (Inside Lines)
- 2026/27: IMM analysis of the 2026/27 BRA
- 2027/28: PJM 2027/28 BRA report
- 2027/28: PJM news release, Dec 17 2025
- 2027/28: Utility Dive on the IMM attribution
- 2028/29: FERC price-collar approval (Utility Dive)
- 2028/29: Backstop reliability auction (Utility Dive)