'The AI-driven, energy-hungry data-center boom was bound to bring up uncomfortable questions: Will it raise energy bills and, if so, who will shoulder the costs

'The AI-driven, energy-hungry data-center boom was bound to bring up uncomfortable questions: Will it raise energy bills and, if so, who will shoulder the costs? America’s largest wholesale power market is starting to see the results. Rapid data-center build-out is increasing power demand just as a wave of older power-plant retirements is reducing supply in PJM Interconnection, the independent system operator that manages the wholesale power market spanning 13 states including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois. It said two weeks ago that its latest capacity auction yielded prices of $269.92 per megawatt-day for most of its footprint, about nine times the clearing price a year ago. A contributing factor was a tweak in PJM’s modeling to better plan for extreme weather conditions. Skyrocketing capacity prices are a clear signal that the grid needs new power plants.'