For five years as CEO of the PJM Interconnection, Manu Asthana was the lighting rod for a gathering storm of criticism and frustration with the operation of the nation’s largest regional electricity market and power coordinator.
A month after a contentious grilling from House Republicans and Democrats alike and with governors, power companies, environmental groups and consumer advocates squabbling over PJM policies, Asthana on Monday announced his surprise resignation to take effect at the end of the year.
PJM’s control room in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, balances moment-to-moment power flows of up to 154,000 megawatts for more than 65 million people across 13 states from the mid-Atlantic coast to Chicago. But its unwieldy patchwork of generators and utilities, often with different agendas, has contributed to a slow planning process. Critics say it hasn’t kept pace with the dynamic technology forces and climate policy battles reshaping the American electricity system.
PJM has warned that old coal- and gas-fired plants are retiring faster than they can be replaced by new wind and solar farms, energy storage or new gas generation. But its arduous, expensive process for approving a raft of proposed new solar power projects has kept the renewable option on the sidelines. Concerns about potential electricity shortages in the coming years have invited emergency action by President Donald Trump to order selected fossil plants to keep running, with decisions due in a matter of months.
