Across the U.S., energy policymakers and power grid operators have three broad goals at the top of their 2026 priority lists: enable AI dominance. Secure electricity supply. Keep power prices from spiraling.
But hitting those targets is challenged by a simple question that remains hard to answer: What’s real and what’s hype when it comes to data center demand for electricity?
The dilemma is front and center at PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional power grid, serving 67 million people in 13 states from the Atlantic coast to Chicago. Later this month, PJM plans to release an updated estimate of future electricity demand from large users. The report is expected to provide a serious reality check to the projections that developers and utilities make about future data center growth.
PJM Chief Operating Officer Stu Bresler said last month that PJM’s overall power demand forecast for the year beginning in mid-2027 will be “appreciably lower” than current projections. PJM wants more evidence on how fast and how large new data centers can actually be built with shortages of chips, electronics and specialized construction teams.
