“WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is planning to propose that the nation's largest power grid operator hold an emergency auction in which tech companies would bid to have new power plants built, according to people familiar with the matter.
The directive, expected Friday, would be an unprecedented attempt by the federal government to check rising electricity prices within PJM Interconnection, a 13-state power market spanning from New Jersey to Kentucky. The build-out of data centers there in response to the artificial-intelligence boom is straining the grid's capacity and has resulted in substantially higher costs in several of the grid operator's recent power auctions.
The emergency auction would allow tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new power plants in deals that would be worth billions of dollars, some of the people said. Bloomberg previously reported on the plans for the auction.
PJM, home to the largest concentration of data centers in the U.S., has come under strain in recent years as tech companies seek to connect even more of them to the grid. Power plants there have been going out of service faster than they can be replaced, which has put a squeeze on power supplies as more electricity-hungry facilities come online.
"I never want Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers," President Trump posted on social media earlier this week. He said the administration is working with U.S. technology companies on the issue and "will have much to announce in the coming weeks."
Trump praised a pledge by Microsoft to pay its own way on data centers. He has publicly embraced the AI boom at a time when locals across the country have been pushing back on data centers over their effects on electricity costs, among other complaints.
A bipartisan group of governors will gather at the White House on Friday for a meeting. They plan to sign a "statement of principles" focused on getting more new energy generation onto the grid while addressing affordability, some of the people said.” [1]
1. U.S. News: Auction Plan for Tech Power Grid Needs Is Weighed. Ramkumar, Amrith; Patterson, Scott; Hiller, Jennifer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 16 Jan 2026: A2.
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