PJM power prices jump 76%

PJM Interconnection’s latest capacity auction and its market monitor’s newest quarterly report show how fast electricity costs are rising across the biggest U.S. power market. PJM said its 2026/2027 Base Residual Auction cleared at $329.17 per megawatt-day, up from $269.92 in the prior auction, while Monitoring Analytics said average wholesale power prices in the first quarter of 2026 rose 76% from a year earlier to $136.53 per megawatt-hour. (pjm.com) (monitoringanalytics.com) PJM, which runs the grid serving more than 67 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia, tied the auction outcome to a tighter supply-demand balance. Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent market monitor, said recent and forecast data-center load additions were the primary reason for the tight conditions and high capacity prices. (prnewswire.com) The result is a power market where capacity costs, energy prices and planning assumptions for large users now move together more than they did a few years ago. For companies deciding where to place new computing load, the PJM auction and the first-quarter price data now provide two concrete signals: the cost of being served in the region has risen, and the load forecast behind those costs is still growing. (pjm.com) ### Which PJM number changed, and by how much? PJM said on July 22, 2025, that the 2026/2027 Base Residual Auction cleared at the FERC-approved cap of $329.17 per megawatt-day across the RTO footprint. That compared with $269.92 per megawatt-day in the 2025/2026 auction. (pjm.com) That increase is about 22% auction-to-auction, not 76%. The 76% figure comes from Monitoring Analytics’ first-quarter 2026 energy-market data, which showed average wholesale power prices rising to $136.53 per megawatt-hour from $77.78 in the first quarter of 2025. (pjm.com) ### Where does the data-center link come from? Monitoring Analytics said in a June 3, 2025 analysis that the increase in actual load and peak-load forecasts for the 2025/2026 and 2026/2027 auctions was “almost entirely due” to existing and projected data-center load additions. The market monitor said data-center load growth was the primary reason for recent and expected capacity-market conditions, including high prices. (pjm.com) PJM used narrower language in its own July 2025 release. The grid operator said forecast peak load for the 2026/2027 delivery year increased by more than 5,400 MW year over year, driven largely by data-center expansion, electrification and economic growth. (pjm.com) An earlier PJM release on the 2025/2026 auction said the peak-load forecast used there increased by about 3,200 MW from the previous year and that the tighter market also reflected generator retirements and FERC-approved market reforms. (monitoringanalytics.com) ### Is this about capacity prices or day-to-day power prices? Monitoring Analytics’ May 14, 2026 quarterly report covered the energy market, where power is priced in megawatt-hours and bought day-ahead or in real time. That report is the source for the 76% year-over-year increase in wholesale power prices. (pjm.com) PJM’s auction results cover the capacity market, where generators and demand-response providers are paid to be available in a future delivery year. PJM describes the Reliability Pricing Model as the mechanism it uses to secure enough supply to meet predicted demand. The two markets are different, but both now reflect the same basic strain: higher projected demand and a system that PJM says cleared only 139 MW above the reliability requirement in the 2026/2027 auction. (pjm.com) ### What do the official sources say about consumer impact? PJM said the $329.17 per megawatt-day clearing price would translate into a year-over-year increase of 1.5% to 5% in some customers’ retail bills, depending on how load-serving entities and states pass through wholesale costs. (monitoringanalytics.com) PJM also said some areas could see decreases because two zones cleared lower than in the prior year. (pjm.com) Monitoring Analytics put a larger dollar figure on the effect of data-center-related load growth across multiple auctions. Its 2025 annual State of the Market report said including existing and forecast data-center load growth increased capacity-market revenues for the 2025/2026, 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 auctions by a combined $23.1 billion. (pjm.com) ### What comes next in PJM’s auction calendar? PJM said after releasing the 2027/2028 auction results in December 2025 that the next Base Residual Auction for the 2028/2029 delivery year was scheduled for June 2026. PJM also said it would conduct an Incremental Auction for the 2027/2028 delivery year in February 2027. (pjm.com) Those next filings and auction results will show whether the higher clearing prices, the added new generation PJM (prnewswire.com) (monitoringanalytics.com)