HARRISBURG — The administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro Monday afternoon said it filed a complaint against the organization that coordinates major flows of electricity in Pennsylvania and 12 other states because of energy auction practices it says could cost consumers billions of dollars.
The complaint was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs in the action were listed as “Governor Josh Shapiro and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
A statement from the Shapiro administration said, “Left unaddressed PJM’s next capacity auction scheduled for July 2025 could result in over $20 billion in unnecessary energy costs for Pennsylvanians and consumers across the region. Because PJM is not currently allowing new power plants to request connection to its grid, and due to other flaws in its capacity model, PJM capacity auctions are leading to record-high costs without safeguarding reliability.”
A spokesperson for PJM, Jeffrey Shields, said it has been in conversations with the administration for several months. “We have advanced, through FERC filings, much of what the administration has requested of us related to the capacity market and queue reform,” he said. “Our conversations with the administration have been productive and we look forward to continuing that engagement.”
Mr. Shields said that fundamentally, it was a supply-and-demand problem that is leading to high consumer pricing. It is, Mr. Shields said, being driven “primarily by policy choices that are pushing resources off the system along with data center and electrification demand growth.”
The action comes at a time when demand for energy is increasing because of increasing use of artificial intelligence and data centers, increased manufacturing and other causes.
In the statement, the administration said it is committed to getting more power generating facilities built in the state “as part of an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy that creates jobs, reduces emissions, and ensures safe, reliable, affordable power for Pennsylvanians for the long term.” It noted that Pennsylvania is the nation’s largest exporter of electricity and that Pennsylvania helped found PJM nearly a century ago.
Mr. Shapiro said, “As the demand for energy continues to increase, my administration is taking action to demand PJM fix its broken processes and adopt common sense reforms that will allow us to produce more power and meet record-high electricity demand, while keeping costs low for hardworking families.”
First Published: December 30, 2024, 10:08 p.m.
Updated: December 31, 2024, 2:57 a.m.
