President Donald Trump and a bipartisan group of governors will direct the the nation’s biggest grid operator to hold a special auction for technology companies to fund the construction of new power plants needed to supply data centers.
The initiative, confirmed by a White House official, is designed to put the burden for expanding electricity generating capacity on the data centers rather than on households and businesses, which have already seen their energy costs skyrocket amid the surging demand for artificial intelligence processing. If approved by grid operator PJM Interconnection and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the auction could help fund the construction of around $15 billion in new power generation in PJM’s 13-state region.
The initiative was first reported by Bloomberg News.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and a bipartisan group of governors will meet at the White House on Friday to sign a document laying out the principles, according to a person familiar with the plans who was granted anonymity to discuss non-public information.
