East coast could soon get rolling blackouts during summer because data centers have pushed electric grid to the limit
Source: The Independent
Tuesday 13 January 2026 12:51 EST
The East Coast of the United States could soon experience rolling blackouts as AI data centers gobble up more and more electricity, pushing the grid to the limit, according to a new report. PJM, the organization that services nearly 70 million people in a 13-state corridor stretching from Kentucky to New Jersey, may be forced to trigger power outages during high demand periods, such as summer heat waves or winter freezes, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Mark Christie, a former head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said he used to believe the threat of blackouts was distant. “Now I’m saying that the reliability risk is across the street,” he said.
The AI boom has seen data centers cropping up across the U.S. but they are heavily concentrated in Northern Virginia, increasing demand for power and leading to soaring energy bills. “It’s killing my pockets,” a Maryland resident told Bloomberg in September. Another added: “You wonder, ‘what is your breaking point?’”
PJM has projected that power demand will increase by an average of 4.8 percent annually for the next 10 years — an unprecedented pace of growth. And ICF, a consulting firm, forecasts that demand in 2030 will surge 25 percent above 2023 levels, largely as a result of data centers.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/east-coast-blackouts-ai-data-centers-b2899669.html
Link to WSJ (msn/no paywall) report - America’s biggest power grid operator has an AI problem—too many data centers
Link to PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection) REPORT - 2025 Year in Review: Planning Prepares for Burgeoning Electricity Demand
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