Electricity is becoming one of the defining operating constraints of the AI data center expansion.
Recent reporting around the PJM Interconnection highlighted a 76 percent year over year increase in wholesale power costs in the first quarter of 2026. How much of that increase should be attributed specifically to data center demand is disputed. Gas prices, weather, generation retirements, transmission constraints and market design all affect wholesale prices, so the number should not be reduced to a simple claim that data centers caused the entire increase.
The operating lesson remains important even without resolving that argument.
Power is no longer a background utility expense for many data centers. It is becoming a capacity constraint, an operating cost driver and a business risk that infrastructure teams need to understand at much finer granularity.
The electricity bill is too late
