Grid Currents — December 21, 2025
A Publication of The Hedley Company – Communications and Research for Energy
Quick Summary
The week ending December 20, 2025, underscored growing grid stress driven by AI and data-center demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s December 9 Short-Term Energy Outlook projects record electricity consumption in both 2025 and 2026.
Wholesale electricity prices near major data-center hubs have risen as much as 267% since 2020, reflecting transformer shortages, interconnection delays, and rapidly rising load growth.
PJM’s capacity auction results, released December 17, cleared at record levels and failed to procure sufficient capacity to meet reliability targets—signaling higher consumer bills and rising reliability risks. ERCOT reported reduced winter outage risk due to new battery storage, while Georgia regulators approved a 50% increase in power capacity to serve data centers.
Internationally, the United Kingdom exceeded £1 billion in wind curtailment costs, while China continued balancing record renewable additions with coal for baseload reliability. Texas advanced new data-center flexibility rules under Senate Bill 6.
The common thread: rising demand is colliding with insufficient dispatchable capacity, aging infrastructure, and misaligned cost-allocation policies.
U.S. Grid News
Electricity Prices Surge Amid AI Data-Center Boom
PJM’s December 17 capacity auction cleared at record highs, with prices reflecting data-center demand overtaking supply. Wholesale electricity costs near major data-center clusters have increased as much as 267% since 2020, with residential electricity bills rising faster than inflation.
