PJM, the grid operator coordinating electricity across 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states plus Washington, D.C., published a 2025 Long-Term Load Forecast on January 30, 2025, projecting its summer peak demand rising from about 154,144 megawatts in 2025 to roughly 183,883 megawatts by 2030 - an increase of nearly 30 gigawatts. PJM attributed the acceleration primarily to the proliferation of data centers, alongside electrification and manufacturing, and noted the annualized 20-year growth rate had jumped to 2.0 percent from 1.6 percent the year before.
The forecast mattered because PJM serves Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” the densest concentration of data centers in the world, so its planning numbers became one of the clearest official signals that AI-era computing demand was straining a major US grid. The pressure showed up in PJM’s capacity auctions, where prices rose sharply as the system worked to procure enough generation to meet the forecast load.