PJM's latest market monitoring data reveals a concerning trend for anyone operating energy-intensive infrastructure in the region. Massive data center expansions are wreaking havoc on the grid economics—transmission costs are climbing, and both energy and capacity prices are following suit.

For context, PJM manages one of North America's largest power grids, and when data centers pile on load at this scale, the ripple effects hit everyone connected to the network. The interconnection bottlenecks aren't just theoretical anymore; they're showing up in real dollars on utility bills.

What's particularly interesting here is the timing. As more compute-heavy operations (think AI training farms and yes, crypto mining facilities) race to secure power capacity, we're watching a supply-demand imbalance play out in real time. The grid wasn't built for this kind of concentrated load growth.

Anyone planning infrastructure deployments in PJM territory might want to factor these escalating costs into their models. Cheap electricity was always part of the value prop for certain operations—that advantage is eroding fast in this market.