The Trump administration wants tech companies to buy $15 billion worth of power plants they may not use

The Trump administration wants the largest power grid to add $15 billion worth of new power generation — and wants tech companies to pay for it, even if they don’t need the capacity.

The White House and governors of several states in the region want grid operator PJM to auction 15-year contracts for new generating capacity. The administration said it wants technology companies to bid on contracts even if they don’t end up needing power for their data centers. Demand for data centers is expected to triple over the next decade.

PJM said it is reviewing its Statement of Principles and will soon release the results of a months-long planning process that looks to add new capacity to the network.

However, the statement is incoherent, and behind the scenes, the AKP does not seem bothered by the administration’s attempt to impose its control. “We don’t have much to say about this,” Jeffrey Shields, spokesman for the Justice and Development Party, told Bloomberg yesterday. “We weren’t invited to the event they’re holding tomorrow apparently and we won’t be there.”

PJM Interconnection, which covers 13 states in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, serves more than 65 million people and includes a data center connection point in Northern Virginia. Electricity prices in 2025 rose by about 10% to 15% in the region compared to the previous year.

In the past decade, PJM peak load has increased by 10%, according to Monitoring Analytics, and is expected to increase by another 6.5% in 2027.

Much of the blame has been placed on technology companies and data center operators, which are using increasing amounts of power for artificial intelligence.

The price of natural gas is also to blame. PJM relies heavily on fossil fuels, and their price has been rising recently. Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent watchdog, says about 60% of 2025 price increases are the result of rising fossil fuel prices.

Grid operators have been put in a bind as data centers surge demand for electricity after more than a decade of zero growth.

Building new fossil fuel power plants is a years-long proposition that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Many utilities and energy providers are reluctant to commit to these timelines and expenses. If the AI ​​boom fades, they could be left with unprofitable power plants designed to operate for decades.

Instead, technology companies, which have not traditionally been in the energy business, have turned to renewables, which are cheaper, more modular and faster to deploy. Solar and batteries were the early winners. A typical solar farm can be built in about 18 months, and because it can be built in phases, power delivery can begin before it is completed. This aligns closely with the construction of data centers, allowing companies to manage risks on similar timelines.