PJM capacity auctions - $325.00/MW-day for 2028/2029
The price of keeping the lights on, and who pays it
- PJM's 2028/2029 capacity auction cleared at $325.00/MW-day for the entire RTO - 11.2× the 2024/2025 price of $28.92/MW-day (PJM Base Residual Auction results).
- Capacity is the promise that generating plants will be available at the grid's peak hour; its cost is set in these auctions and passed through to electric bills across 13 states and DC.
- PJM's Independent Market Monitor calculated that data-center load accounts for roughly 63% of total 2025/26 capacity costs ($9.33 billion of $14.69 billion) - see the ledger for the exact finding and source.
What a capacity auction is
PJM - the grid operator for 13 states and DC, from New Jersey to Illinois - runs a yearly Base Residual Auction that pays power plants to guarantee they will be available three years later. Every electricity customer in the region pays a share of that cost through their utility or supplier. When the auction clears higher, that flows into retail bills over the delivery year (June–May), typically via default-service supply rates or capacity line items.
Zonal clearing prices - 2028/2029
| Zone (LDA) | $/MW-day | Where that is |
|---|---|---|
| RTO | $325.00 | entire PJM footprint (the floor price) |
| MAAC | $325.00 | Mid-Atlantic region |
| EMAAC | $325.00 | eastern Mid-Atlantic (NJ, DE, southeast PA) |
| SWMAAC | $325.00 | southwest Mid-Atlantic (MD, DC) |
| PS | $325.00 | PSE&G (northern/central New Jersey) |
| PSNORTH | $325.00 | |
| DPLSOUTH | $325.00 | |
| PEPCO | $325.00 | Pepco (Washington DC & suburban Maryland) |
| ATSI | $325.00 | FirstEnergy zone (northern Ohio) |
| ATSI-CLEVELAND | $325.00 | |
| COMED | $325.00 | ComEd (northern Illinois, incl. Chicago) |
| BGE | $325.00 | Baltimore Gas & Electric (central Maryland) |
| PL | $325.00 | |
| DAYTON | $325.00 | |
| DEOK | $325.00 | Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky |
| DOM | $325.00 | Dominion (Virginia & northeast North Carolina) |
| JCPL | $325.00 |
Auction history
| Delivery year | RTO price ($/MW-day) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/2021 | $76.53 | - |
| 2021/2022 | $140.00 | +82.9% |
| 2022/2023 | $50.00 | −64.3% |
| 2023/2024 | $34.13 | −31.7% |
| 2024/2025 | $28.92 | −15.3% |
| 2025/2026 | $269.92 | +833.3% |
| 2026/2027 | $329.17 | +22.0% |
| 2027/2028 | $333.44 | +1.3% |
| 2028/2029 | $325.00 | −2.5% |
How much of this is data centers - and what it does NOT mean
PJM's Independent Market Monitor found total 2025/26 capacity auction revenues were $14.69 billion, and that in its sensitivity analysis 'data center load by itself resulted in an increase in the 2025/2026 BRA revenues of $9,332,103,858 or 174.3 percent' - meaning existing plus forecast data-center load accounts for roughly 63% of the total wholesale capacity cost recovered from customers over June 2025–May 2026. Source: Monitoring Analytics (PJM IMM), Part G analysis
PJM's Independent Market Monitor calculated that data centers drove $6.3 billion of the $16.4 billion in total wholesale capacity charges from the 2028/29 auction (38%), and $29.4 billion of the $63.6 billion across the last four capacity auctions combined (46%). Monitor Joe Bowring called the shift a 'paradigm' change and urged a separate auction for hyperscaler load. Source: Utility Dive (reporting Monitoring Analytics)
The wholesale-vs-retail caveat: these are wholesale capacity prices, not your bill. Capacity is one component of a retail bill alongside energy, transmission and distribution; how much of an auction increase reaches you depends on your state, utility and supply arrangement. Estimates published for the June 2026 delivery year put the retail impact at roughly 1.5–5% for affected PJM customers (see the Pennsylvania entry on our state page for the sourced figure). Quoting the wholesale increase as if it were a retail increase is the single most common error in this debate.
Other grid regions (MISO, ISO-NE, NYISO)
PJM is not the only capacity construct - the numbers below are hand-verified from each operator's publications and refreshed after each auction (as of 2026-08-12). They are not comparable to each other or to PJM without the unit caveats stated.
- MISO (Planning Resource Auction (annual, seasonal prices)): Summer 2026-27 cleared at $424.30/MW-day in MISO's North/Central zones (LRZs 1-7), $384.10/MW-day in LRZs 8 and 10, and $412.10/MW-day in LRZ 9, with the other seasons clearing in all zones at $33.92/MW-day (fall), $35.97/MW-day (winter), and $7.61/MW-day (spring) - down from the $666.50/MW-day summer price most zones hit for 2025-26. Unlike PJM's single annual clearing price set in a forward Base Residual Auction, MISO's PRA is a residual auction run shortly before each June 1 planning year that clears four separate seasonal prices. Annualized prices across MISO's 10 zones dropped to $116-$126/MW-day from $212-$217/MW-day a year earlier as new supply (including 12.2 GW of accredited solar, up 59% year over year) outpaced demand growth. (Utility Dive) Source: American Public Power Association (reporting MISO's April 28, 2026 PRA results)
- ISO-NE (Forward Capacity Auction (annual forward - redesign in progress)): FCA 18 cleared at $3.58/kW-month in all zones and import interfaces, securing 31,556 MW of capacity commitments for 2027/2028. Like PJM, ISO-NE has procured capacity roughly three years ahead in an annual forward auction (priced in $/kW-month rather than $/MW-day), but it is abandoning that model: FCA 19 was delayed while the market is redesigned. In March 2026 FERC accepted the first batch of ISO-NE's Capacity Auction Reforms, moving to prompt auctions held about a month before delivery; the first auction under the new framework is planned for 2028, with a seasonal-auction filing expected at FERC at the end of 2026. (ISO Newswire) Source: ISO New England (ISO Newswire, finalized FCA 18 results)
- NYISO (ICAP market (monthly spot auctions within six-month capability periods)): New York City (Zone J) cleared at a record $32.60/kW-month in the May 2026 ICAP spot auction and $32.50/kW-month in June - 67% above the zone's previous high and more than double May-June 2025 - while in May Long Island (Zone K) cleared at about $11/kW-month and Rest of State at about $8/kW-month. Unlike PJM's annual forward auction, NYISO procures installed capacity through monthly spot auctions priced in $/kW-month within six-month summer and winter capability periods, so prices reset month to month. Notably, the cited analysis attributes the NYC record not to data centers but to in-city supply tightening: available generation fell about 617 MW into summer while the locational requirement rose 435 MW, and a new 1,250 MW transmission line missed the auction eligibility deadline. Source: Modo Energy Research
PJM clearing prices are parsed directly from PJM's "For Public Use" Base Residual Auction results workbooks (pjm.com RPM page) on every build; auctions before 2020/21 were published in a binary format we do not parse - see PJM's page for the pre-2020 record.
Download all parsed auction prices (CSV) · How data centers reach your bill → · The ledger →