Overview
- Late July, PJM implemented a Bring Your Own New Generation rule and a curtailment priority that requires large new data-center loads to arrange incremental power or face being cut first during shortages.
- The White House expanded a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge to roughly 200 signatories who say they will cover new generation and grid costs but the promise is nonbinding and leaves regulators able to set retail rates.
- The Department of Energy announced a partnership with NextEra, Brookfield and utilities to redevelop the Paducah federal site into an AI campus backed by about $100 billion and paired with 2 GW of gas-fired generation and 2.6 GW of battery storage.
- Industry and experts warn that new transmission, transformers and large turbines take years to deliver, so developers are turning to on-site gas turbines and batteries as stopgaps that raise local air-quality and emissions concerns; the EPA has eased some rules for data-center‑linked generators.
- Local resistance and policy responses are growing fast with hundreds of municipal moratoria, at least one statewide pause in New York, sharp spikes in PJM capacity prices, and forecasts that data-center demand could approach roughly 194 GW by 2035.