Maryland, My Maryland

 Olivia Murray at Am Think thinks Electricity bills projected to jump 20% in coming months for these 13 states

In 2024, prices jumped a whopping 800% at PJM Interconnection, a “traffic controller” part of the grid that provides service in 13 states as well as D.C. For context, PJM operates the largest power grid in the U.S., with around 67 million customers—that’s more than 20% of the American population.

Here’s some quick context: Each year, PJM holds a capacity auction which sees power providers bid to meet the future demand in PJM territory, and it’s during this event that PJM “secures commitments” from power providers who will generate the future supply. As Reuters reported in July of 2024, amid a dwindling supply and an increase in demand, “Prices for power plants landed at $269.92 per megawatt-day, compared to $28.92 per megawatt-day” in 2023.

Now, according to a new piece by Laila Kearney at Reuters, prices are set to spike again, and the projection for this year is around 20%. If you live in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, or D.C., this could affect you. Kearney revealed that the cause of the price increase can be blamed on AI demands:

America’s largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.

The grid as it is now is barely able to meet current demands, demands which are only expected to soar in just a few short years, and prices for consumers substantially increased for more than 20% of the citizenry in less than two years…but politicians and lawmakers continue to order the closures of operational power plants for their “renewable” energy crusade.

Now to even have this debate it requires us to ignore the elephant in the room, and that is that oil, coal, and natural gas are far more “renewable” energies than solar and wind. Yes the sun will shine and the wind will blow, but the technologies required to harness those energies have much shorter lifespans (by far) than the traditional sources.

I reported on this when the capacity auction happened, back in the Biden regency. Now the bill is coming due. Fortunately, this cost is only a fraction of the cost of electricity, so the increases will only be 20% or so.

Build more nukes.