The largest U.S. power grid, PJM, is facing record electricity demand due to a heat dome and the expansion of data centers. On July 2, the grid began rerouting power traffic and dispatching costly fossil fuel plants to prevent outages. On July 3, electricity prices tripled on the PJM Interconnection grid, which serves 67 million people across 13 states, as power demand surged to approximately 163 gigawatts, nearing the all-time record set in 2006. On July 6, New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill directing the Board of Public Utilities to establish a dedicated tariff for data centers with 50MW capacity or more.
