Keith Romer

No.

By far, the biggest contributor to their electricity prices going up was generation.

And most of that price increase came from the way the capacity market isn't really working the way it is supposed to.

Folks like Ken and Carol, who live in PJM's region, they probably have it the worst.

And their electricity prices will likely keep going up, in large part thanks to all of these new data centers.

But different versions of this story are playing out all over the country.

The sheer scale of the demand for power from these data centers is putting a lot of pressure on the electricity system.

And lots of people are seeing their bills increase as a result.

Right now, the electricity world, it's in chaos.

PJM just had a big meeting last month where its board reviewed a dozen different proposals for how to fix its problems.

And they rejected all of them.

They say a new plan is coming next month.

On the federal level, the Department of Energy has been making noises about taking over control of data center connections for the entire country.

So it's anyone's guess how any of this plays out.

Today's show was produced by Sam Yellow Horse Kessler.

It was edited by Jess Jang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and Vito Emanuel.

It was engineered by Sina Lofredo.

Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.