After months of wrangling over how to handle surging power demand from AI-driven data centers and the resulting spike in electricity prices for millions, members of PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, could not agree on a solution.

Their disagreement played out last week in an “advisory vote,” part of the final phase of PJM’s expedited rulemaking track known as the Critical Issue Fast Path, or CIFP .

CIFP is aimed at figuring out how PJM can reliably serve the region as data center demand climbs toward a staggering 30 gigawatts by 2030—roughly the power use of 20 million homes. Early stages of that growth have already driven double-digit percentage increases in electricity prices across states, notably in New Jersey, where the state saw a 20 percent bill increase in

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