Pritzker joins bipartisan group of governors pushing for data centers to pay their own electric bills

As data centers continue to gobble up electricity in the region and across the U.S., Gov. JB Pritzker joined other governors in urging a key power grid operator to shield consumers from the costs of supply expansion.

PJM Interconnection, which manages transmission of electricity in 13 states, including northern Illinois, is in the process of securing additional generating capacity to accommodate “large-load” customers like data centers.

The move comes amid PJM reporting in February that demand for electricity was outpacing infrastructure development, due to data centers, global supply chain issues and other factors.

“This shortfall is projected to continuously grow over the next decade as new large loads come on to the system,” the organization noted.

In a Thursday letter, Republican and Democratic governors said, “preferably, PJM should directly assign costs to new data centers.”

Officials also required the transmission agency to protect consumers from “stranded” costs, such as data centers defaulting or from PJM overestimating the supply needed.

“As electricity demand and costs rise across Illinois and the region, our top priority is to put our people first while ensuring a reliable and affordable energy supply,” Pritzker said in a statement. “That’s why I’m joining governors on both sides of the aisle in urging PJM to keep consumers at the center of every decision it makes.”

Data centers have been popping up in the suburbs from Aurora to Hoffman Estates.

Along with Pritzker, Govs. Mike Braun of Indiana, Matt Meyer of Delaware, Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia signed the letter.

Regarding data center costs, PJM officials said the organization “does not have the ability to allocate costs to specific customer classes. This authority rests with the states and was acknowledged by the states in their statement of principles signed with representatives of the White House.”

In March, companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed a pledge agreeing to “build, bring or buy” new generation power resources at data centers and pay for electrical infrastructure upgrades.

Other states served by PJM are Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia.