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

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

The White House and the governors of several states in the region want grid operator PJM to hold an auction for 15-year contracts for new generating capacity. The administration said it wants tech companies to bid on the contracts even if they don’t ultimately need the power for their data centers. Demand from data centers is expected to increase nearly threefold over the next decade.

PJM said it was reviewing the “statement of principles” and that it would soon release the results of a months-long planning process that is looking to add new capacity to the grid.

The statement is nonbonding, though, and behind the scenes, PJM doesn’t appear to be jazzed about the administration attempting to force its hand. “We don’t have a lot to say on this,” PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields told Bloomberg yesterday. “We were not invited to the event they are apparently having tomorrow and we will not be there.”

The PJM Interconnection, which covers 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, serves more than 65 million people and includes the data center hotspot of northern Virginia. Electricity rates in 2025 were up about 10% to 15% in the region compared with the year before.

In the last decade, PJM’s peak load has increased 10%, according to Monitoring Analytics, and it’s expected to increase another 6.5% in 2027.

Much of the blame has been laid at the feet of tech companies and data center operators, who have been using increasing amounts of power for AI.

The price of natural gas is also to blame. PJM is heavily dependent on the fossil fuel, and the price has soared recently. Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent monitor, says that about 60% of 2025’s price increases are the result of high prices for fossil fuels.

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

Building new fossil fuel power plants is a years-long proposition costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Many utilities and power providers are hesitant to commit to those timelines and outlays. If the AI boom fizzles, they could be left with unprofitable power plants that are built to operate for decades. 

Tech companies, which haven’t traditionally been in the power business, have instead been turning to renewables, which are cheaper, more modular, and faster to deploy. Solar and batteries have been an early winner. A typical solar farm can be built in about 18 months, and because it can be built in phases, can start delivering power before it’s complete. That aligns more closely with data center construction, allowing companies to manage risk on similar timelines.