Data Center Moratoriums Spread as PJM Hands Load Management to Individual States
PJM's plan to devolve large-load rules to individual states arrives as a cascade of local moratoriums threatens to constrain where AI infrastructure can be built.
PJM Interconnection, the grid operator covering 13 states and the District of Columbia, put forward a plan on August 5 (2026-08-05) that would leave individual states to design their own frameworks for managing data center power demand, rather than imposing grid-wide rules. The approach is a response to a surge in large-load connection requests that PJM's existing tariff structure was not designed to absorb.8
The plan arrived roughly three weeks after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the country's first statewide executive moratorium on large-scale data center development on July 14 (2026-07-14), freezing permits for facilities requiring more than 50 megawatts of power for up to one year. At least 28 large data centers with a combined potential demand of 9.7 gigawatts are currently under consideration in New York, according to reporting on the moratorium order. The New York State Legislature had already acted in June 2026 with the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which targeted facilities above 20 megawatts.6,4
What is emerging is a patchwork of state and local restrictions that developers cannot plan around. A project denied in New York can theoretically relocate, but Florida, often marketed as a more permissive destination, has seen at least 20 counties and municipalities pass or discuss temporary development restrictions as of late June (2026-06-29), E&E News reported. Residents objected to the water consumption, energy draw, and land footprint of large facilities.5
Wisconsin adds another dimension. Voters in Port Washington approved a requirement that local officials seek voter authorization before offering tax incentives to data center developers. Janesville residents are expected to vote in November 2026 on a measure requiring city approval for any new facility valued above $450 million. In Monterey Park, California, local opposition has become a reference model for advocacy groups in other states.4
PJM's approach has found early legislative expression in Illinois, where the POWER Act would require data centers to procure clean energy proportional to their grid impact, Canary Media reported. Several other PJM states have devised large-load tariffs intended to tie data center interconnection to broader grid obligations. But the state-by-state model means that a developer in one jurisdiction faces conditions entirely different from those across the border.8
The numbers behind the backlash are not contested. Data centers consume around 5% of US electricity, up from approximately 2% a decade ago, The Economist reported in May 2026 (2026-05-17). The International Energy Agency projects that share could reach nearly 10% by 2030. Average US residential power bills are up roughly 40% since 2019, well above general inflation, and PJM has estimated that its most recent capacity auction results could lift household bills by up to 5%.2
That bill trajectory is doing political work. Ten US states elect utility regulators by popular vote, and those contests typically draw little public attention. Local campaigns targeting data center tax breaks and power contracts are changing the dynamic in several of them.2
Labor has joined the pressure. In Northern Virginia — home to one of the densest concentrations of data center capacity anywhere — building trades unions pushed requirements in some jurisdictions for prevailing wages, workforce training plans, and a minimum of around 200 construction jobs per project, E&E News reported in June (2026-06-01).3
Demand is not slowing. Canary Media reported in July (2026-07-24) that BloombergNEF's projections for data center power demand had reached nearly double the firm's December estimates, with analysts noting the grid may struggle to accommodate the resulting load growth under existing conditions. The IEA found that within two years of ChatGPT's launch in late 2022, around 40% of households in the US and the UK reported using AI tools, a pace that illustrates why developers are pressing ahead despite the political headwinds.7,1
The November 2026 vote in Janesville, Wisconsin on the $450 million threshold for mandatory civic review will be a clean test of how far municipal authority over data center siting now extends. If it passes, PJM's state-by-state approach may produce not a unified grid strategy but a shifting map of jurisdictions that developers are learning to route around.4,8