Federal regulators are under mounting pressure and on a tight schedule to head off future power shortages and painful cost increases inside PJM, the largest regional electric grid.
Electricity customers across the eastern Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic regions face skyrocketing costs before the end of the decade if demand outpaces future supply. That has consumer advocates, PJM itself and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (D) pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to sign off on significant changes to an auction PJM uses to ensure electricity is available to meet future energy needs.
“Pennsylvania ratepayers face potentially the largest unjust wealth transfer in the history of U.S. energy markets,” Shapiro said in a Dec. 30, 2024, complaint to FERC.
Shapiro called on FERC to direct PJM to lower its price cap for payments to power generators for future supply. If that doesn’t happen, the governor’s office estimates that customers in the sprawling region of 65 million people that includes Pennsylvania will absorb about $20 billion in excess charges.
