PJM Large-Load Interconnection Grade

PJM is the lowest grade on this board, at D, and the trend is down. It is the largest US capacity market, the tightest vacancy market in Northern Virginia, and the place where large-load cost has been given a dollar figure.

PJM's independent market monitor reported in late July 2026 that data centers drove roughly $6.3 billion — about 38% — of the most recent capacity auction, and $29.4 billion, or about 46%, across the last four auctions. That is the cost-shift, priced. FERC's June 18 Section 206 orders sit on top of it. PJM has also started shifting some large-load cost-allocation questions onto the states.

What the grade is pricing

Time-to-power is measured in years. Uncommitted capacity is not the story; cost allocation and reliability-driven curtailment risk are. New York enacted the first statewide hyperscale data-center moratorium. New Jersey's Assembly passed a large-load tariff (≥50 MW, 85% take-or-pay for ten years). Co-located load faces evolving guidance and, after a 3.8 GW trip event, a reliability conversation at NERC.

Powered, tariff-clear inventory that is already de-risked still has a bid. New queue position in PJM is an exposure to socialized-cost politics, not an asset. The grade will not recover on vacancy or rent. It recovers if interconnection and cost allocation isolate new large load from other customers — and that has not happened.