AI Meets the Grid: Interconnection Queue Analysis in PJM and ERCOT
Data centers requiring over 10 GW of power were announced in PJM and ERCOT in just six months. Getting that power online means navigating backlogged and slow interconnection queues. This analysis maps what is in the queue across both markets, which technologies are moving and which are stalled, and what the latest policy shifts mean for achieving speed to power.
What's Inside
- More than 300 GW of generation and storage across roughly 1,500 projects are waiting in the PJM and ERCOT queues, enough capacity on paper to meet projected data center demand through 2030.
- But, active projects in data center load growth zones across both markets are waiting 3 to 4 years in the interconnection queue.
- Renewables and storage make up 77% of PJM's active queue and 87% of ERCOT's, while natural gas projects move through the queue significantly faster.
- After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, monthly gas entries to ERCOT's queue increased 150%, while renewable withdrawals followed in both markets.
Derya Eryilmaz, PhD
Derya Eryilmaz, PhD
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Dr. Derya Eryilmaz is a power markets expert with about 15 years of experience in the power sector, specializing in economic and statistical modeling, power market design, consumer demand modeling and renewable energy procurement. She recently worked at Amazon and Walmart integrating power market analysis and analytics to inform clean firm power investment decisions and corporate decarbonization. She also led teams of data scientists and analysts to deliver enterprise scale AI initiatives resulting in multimillion-dollar cost savings. In her previous work, Dr. Eryilmaz provided advisory and consulting services for the top 20 investor-owned electric and gas utilities clients in North America and she also worked in various oil pipeline, natural gas and power litigation and regulatory proceedings.
Dr. Eryilmaz is teaching renewable energy finance at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She also taught data analytics and energy economics in the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, and has published peer-reviewed research in The Energy Journal, Energy Economics, and The Electricity Journal. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, with a focus on consumer economics and environmental economics.
“Rising Star of the Profession” for Excellence in Energy, Consulting Magazine (2020)
Liam Kilroy
Liam Kilroy
Liam has a diverse professional background spanning research, energy policy, and data analysis. He brings a cross-functional approach to researching and developing customer solutions, and providing analysis on an ever-evolving energy sector. Before joining Relae, he worked as a Solutions Engineer at an energy policy data SaaS company, where he helped sustainability and energy transition focused customers optimize their policy research and management. Liam has also worked as a Technical Account Manager at a carbon accounting SaaS company, where he helped customers integrate a wide variety of energy and spend data into an emissions accounting platform. In this role, he also worked with product and data services teams to develop new internal tools and external platform features.
