Delaware Governor John Carney and four other Democratic governors are pushing for changes at PJM, a regional power grid operator, after its recent auction pointed to sharp increases in electricity costs.
But David Stevenson, director of the Center for Energy & Environment at the Newark-based Caesar Rodney Institute, sees three general problems with the governors’ letter.
Delaware’s Carney joined Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, New Jersey’s Phil Murphy, Maryland’s Wes Moore and Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker in lamenting the results of the July auction that yielded clearing prices exceeding the previous auction’s by nearly tenfold. The upshot for consumers, they wrote, would be a $14.7 billion cost burden in the 2025/26 delivery year.
Is PJM putting consumers at risk of overpaying?
PJM runs auctions where power companies compete to promise future electricity supply. These auctions help ensure there will be enough power available when needed, and power companies get paid to keep their plants ready to generate electricity.