In a move set to reshape who pays for America's booming electricity demand, President Donald Trump has aligned with several U.S. Northeastern governors to advance an unprecedented plan targeting the technology sector. The initiative, to be formally announced on Friday, January 16, 2026, seeks to compel major tech companies to directly fund new power generation through a novel wholesale electricity auction.
The Core of the Plan: A 15-Year Auction for Tech Giants
The Trump administration and governors from states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia plan to direct the regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection LLC, to hold a special auction. Technology companies would bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity. If implemented, this scheme would force these firms to pay for power over the full contract duration, regardless of actual usage, providing guaranteed revenue to support the construction of an estimated $15 billion worth of new power plants.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the scale of the proposed infrastructure investment. The plan is framed as a direct response to the explosive growth of power-hungry data centres, seen as critical infrastructure in the global artificial intelligence race, but which threaten to spike utility bills for households and businesses.
Addressing Grid Strain and Political Pressure
The push comes amid significant concern over electricity demand far outstripping supply in the PJM region, which serves over 67 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest. PJM itself forecasts a 17% jump in peak demand by 2030 from current highs, driven in large part by data centre clusters like the world's largest in northern Virginia.
President Trump has made the issue a personal focus, reiterating on Monday, January 12, 2026, in a social media post that big tech companies must "pay their own way" for the power needed by their data centres. "I never want Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers," he wrote. This stance is tightly linked to broader cost-of-living concerns, which are a pivotal issue for Republicans ahead of the November congressional elections.
Reactions and Unanswered Questions
Despite being central to the plan's execution, representatives from PJM Interconnection will not be present at Friday's announcement. PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields stated, "We were not invited to the event they are apparently having tomorrow and we will not be there," adding that the grid operator had little to say on the matter initially. The White House did not immediately respond to follow-up requests for comment on this point.
The agreement between the administration and the governors will be formalized as a non-binding "statement of principles" signed by Trump's National Energy Dominance Council and the participating state leaders. The proposal emerges against a backdrop of sharply rising electricity costs; the average U.S. retail price hit a record 18.07 cents per kilowatt-hour in September 2025, with residential prices seeing one of the largest increases in over a decade.
This emergency auction plan represents a bold attempt to offload the financial burden of new energy infrastructure onto the corporate beneficiaries of the AI boom, potentially setting a new precedent for how nations manage the intersection of technological ambition and essential public utility costs.
