The grid serving more than 67 million people across thirteen states and the District of Columbia. Its yearly capacity auction carried the datacenters’ cost onto household bills. Chapter 6.
From The AI Compute Race. Read the book
Where the book uses it
- Chapter 6 — Firm, Around-the-Clock
Where the electricity comes from: grid queues, transformers, turbines and the firm power a datacenter needs every hour of the year, on calendars the buildout does not control.
Sources that use it
- Constellation, “Constellation to Launch Crane Clean Energy Center, Restoring Jobs and Carbon-Free Power to The Grid,” 20 September 2024 (“the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft”; “Microsoft will purchase energy from the renewed plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy”; “add approximately 835 megawatts of carbon-free energy to the grid”; “The CCEC is expected to be online in 2028”) In the Sources
- Constellation Energy, “Google and Constellation Announce Landmark Agreement to Bring 890 MW of New Nuclear Capacity to PJM Grid as Part of Long-Term Power Deal,” press release, 6 October 2026 (“The 20-year power purchase agreement will enable investments in new equipment and technology at 11 Constellation-owned nuclear units in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey”; “with the first uprate expected to be delivered by 2028”; the agreement “represents more than $4.3 billion of new investment by Constellation”, its chief executive saying the collaboration “can serve as a model” of investment “funded by private entities”; “the companies entered into a 15-year energy supply agreement for an additional 2,700 MWs in PJM’s fleet”; the release states no sum of the two, and the 3.59 gigawatts of press reports is a sum no company document states) In the Sources
- Enel North America, “PJM 2027/2028 capacity auction results,” December 2025 (cleared at the $333.44/MW-day cap; reserve margin 14.8 percent; 2026/27 auction at $329.17/MW-day). In the Sources
- Google, “Why we’re backing America’s existing nuclear plants,” company blog post, 6 October 2026 (“Before the end of 2032, these uprate projects will add 890 MW of firm, 24/7 clean power to the PJM grid”) In the Sources
- PJM Interconnection, “FERC Accepts PJM Reliability Backstop Proposal: Order Delays One-Time Procurement to Commit New Electricity Supply,” Inside Lines, 30 September 2026 (PJM’s own account: “PJM will not proceed with the Reliability Backstop Procurement on Sept. 30 as originally planned”; “All timeline milestones previously communicated for the RBP will be reviewed and communicated to stakeholders at a later date”). In the Sources
And 44 more: search the Sources.
Related terms
From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.
How to cite this page
Dryburgh, Lee S. “PJM.” In The AI Compute Race. DRYBURGH. https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/pjm (accessed 2026-11-01).
BibTeX
@misc{dryburgh-pjm-2026,
author = {Dryburgh, Lee S.},
title = {{PJM}},
howpublished = {In \emph{The AI Compute Race}, DRYBURGH},
year = {2026},
url = {https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/pjm},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-01}
}