America’s largest power grid is under enormous strain from AI data centers. And a new report details how wholesale electricity prices have jumped nearly 76% in an area where tens of millions of Americans live. PJM Interconnection operates a wholesale electric power market in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and South that covers 67 million people in 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). That’s nearly 20% of the U.S. population, and it’s also an area with a lot of data centers. Power prices there averaged $136.53 per megawatt-hour in the first three months of 2026, according to a massive new report from Monitoring Analytics. That’s up from $77.78 per megawatt-hour in the first three months of 2026. The report isn’t shy about where we should put the blame: “Data center load growth is the primary reason for recent and expected capacity market conditions, including total forecast load growth, the tight supply and demand balance, and high prices.” The report, first spotted by Bloomberg, warns that there simply isn’t enough capacity to meet the demand from data centers that have been built to power the AI revolution.