Wholesale electricity prices in northern Virginia, which hosts the world's largest concentration of data centers, have exceeded $2,000 per megawatt hour this week.
Grid Emergency Declared Amid Heatwave
On July 1, 2026, PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. power grid operator, issued a federal alert requiring utilities to reduce electricity consumption across its territory. The action was taken due to generator outages, transmission line overloading, and increased air conditioning use during a heatwave. PJM serves 67 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, South, and Washington, D.C., area.
Price Surge in Northern Virginia
The price surge is attributed to the high cost of delivering power over congested transmission lines, according to industry analysts and PJM data.
Under normal conditions, electricity in the region costs about $40 per MWh. The current price of $2,000 per MWh represents a dramatic increase, driven by the strain on infrastructure serving the area's massive data center industry.