DOE files at FERC: PJM must keep data-centre backstop costs off existing bills

Victoria Shinder09 October 2026, 07:472 min read

The US Department of Energy filed a "statement of position" with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on 7 October urging the PJM Interconnection to revise its reliability backstop procurement so that the cost of serving data centres and other large loads is not shifted onto existing customers. According to Utility Dive, it appears to be the first such filing DOE has made at FERC in at least five years.

The background. PJM, which runs the grid across 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and Washington, D.C., fell short of its reserve targets in its last two capacity auctions, largely because of forecast data-centre demand. Its backstop plan aims to buy 6.8 GW of new capacity for the 2028/29 delivery year. The procurement was due to start on 30 September but was paused at the last minute when FERC said parts of the plan — cost allocation, exit rules for transmission owners and collateral for load-serving entities — may be unjust and unreasonable, and set a hearing process running to February.

What DOE asked for. DOE supported FERC's order, particularly on costs, and invoked the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, under which, it said, large loads rather than households or other businesses must fund the generation and infrastructure they require. Utilities in PJM's footprint that signed the voluntary pledge include AEP, AES, CenterPoint, Dominion, Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL. Specifically, DOE wants costs allocated on updated load forecasts and a way to track each large-load project — whether it comes into service, is delayed, shrinks or is cancelled — so costs follow the customers who caused them. Without project-level data, DOE wrote, PJM cannot reconcile its baseline forecast with load adjustments, avoid double counting, or cut the target when forecast load fails to appear.

What PJM will do. Rather than wait for the hearing, PJM told Utility Dive it intends to file a revised backstop plan by 29 October, after a special Members Committee meeting on 22 October and a meeting of its transmission-owner committee.

Why it matters. The fight is no longer about whether PJM needs capacity but about who carries the risk that forecast demand never arrives. If FERC accepts forecast-based allocation with project tracking, data-centre developers bear more of that risk — and the quality of PJM's large-load data becomes a pricing input in its own right.

Source: Utility Dive, "DOE presses PJM on ratepayer protections from large load costs", 8 October 2026 — https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-pjm-ferc-ratepayer-protection-large-load-data-center/832479/