PJM Interconnection filed a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that would let new data centers and other large power users connect to the grid if they bring their own power supply, while forcing those that do not to accept curtailment ahead of residential customers during emergencies.
The filing creates a new Interim Resource Adequacy Service, or IRAS, for large loads that have not built or contracted their own generation and have not had their capacity needs covered through the Reliability Backstop Procurement, a process meant to close forecasted capacity shortfalls starting in June 2027. When supply on the PJM grid nears dangerously low levels, utilities would be notified to reduce or transfer demand from those new large loads first, ahead of any step that would cut service to traditional consumers, including households.
PJM would also require utilities and other load-serving entities to bring new generation capacity equal to or greater than the combined peak demand of the new large loads they serve. If that capacity is not built, PJM would direct proportional demand cuts across those zones during emergencies, still ahead of calling on Load Management customers, who are paid in advance to cut usage when PJM directs it.
Registry would track every large load
PJM would build a Large Load Registry covering every large load, new and existing, giving states, utilities and regulators the data to apply IRAS to specific customers if they choose. A large load ordered to cut usage could earn credit for helping grid reliability, though it could also waive that compensation. States and their local utilities would still decide how retail costs are divided among customers in affected areas.
The filing ties the proposal to "resource adequacy shortfalls" from the "unprecedented addition of large loads, most notably data centers." Of the 32 GW of demand growth PJM forecasts between 2024 and 2030, 30 GW comes from data centers.
The framework builds on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, introduced in March 2026 and expanded in July 2026, under which new large loads agree to "build, bring, or buy" the power they need rather than shift the cost to other ratepayers. Starting with the 2029/2030 capacity auction, PJM would stop counting new large loads that lack their own supply when it calculates how much capacity to procure in future auctions. PJM asked FERC to act on the petition within 60 days.
