PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organisation that runs the electricity grid across 13 US states and Washington DC, put the question the whole boom has avoided into writing. In a board letter signed by chair Paula Conboy on 19 May 2026, PJM told governors that unless their states build frameworks to allocate data-centre costs before its centralised procurement runs in September 2026, those costs may land on "other consumers in the states, including residential consumers" 1.
The instrument is a centralised Reliability Backstop Procurement, brought forward to September because legal certainty on cost allocation may not arrive until 2027. PJM merged it with its Connect and Manage process under a single fast-track, its CIFP (Critical Issue Fast Path). Data centres that contract bilaterally for backstop power leave the mandatory connection pool; everyone left behind shares the reinforcement bill.
PJM set the September date for a reason. It already runs DOE (Department of Energy) curtailment authority over backup-equipped sites , filed its co-located load tariff on the same 18 May FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) deadline it was set , and watched FERC log 75 GW of new summer capacity while the grid still hit an emergency . The letter says the next reinforcement round cannot wait for a rulebook. Operators counter that they pay connection charges already, and that a backstop auction socialises a cost they did not ask other ratepayers to carry.
