For decades, the little -known non -profit organization has played a central role in maintaining lights for 65 million people in the Eastern United States.
Even some governors and legislators acknowledge that they were not fully aware of how much the organization, PJM, the cost and reliability of energy in 13 countries have a great influence. The electrical network it manages is the largest in the United States.
Now, however, some elected leaders have come to the conclusion that the PJM decision is one of the main reasons why in recent years accounts have risen for public services. They said that the organization slowly added new solar, wind and batteries projects that could help reduce electricity costs. And they say that the grid manager pays existing power plants too much to supply electricity to his states.
Some governors were so angry that they sued, developed or signed laws to force changes in the organization, or threaten to pull their states out of the regional network.
Democratic governors Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania sharply criticized the organization in recent interviews with The New York Times and in written statements. And the Republican Governor Virginia Glenn Youngkin urged the organization to fire its CEO in the letter acquired by The Times.
“PJM lost a plot,” said Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey in an interview. In the next interview, the Governor of Wes Moore from Maryland said about PJM: “I’m angry.”
Elected leaders – some of them may run for the President in 2028 – and their helpers said that the executives of PJM, members of the board and committees made a secret of many important decisions. And too many decisions, as it is to make it easier or harder for new energy projects to join the grid, in fact benefit established energy companies at the expense of the population and enterprises that use electricity.
Fury Governor in PJM is part of wider frustrations expressed by elected officials, residents and businesses over American grids. After decades of modest and gradual increase in the price of energy over the past few years, it has tirelessly climbed.
Electricity costs for Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia have increased from 23 to 40 percent over the past five years.
Energy costs increased sharply after natural gas prices increased when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022. However, electricity rates continued to climb after this shock because the demand for energy is growing rapidly, mostly driven by new data centers.
In addition, current outages have become more common because the device was poorly maintained and was not upgraded for more intense natural disasters associated with climate change.
PJM spokesman said the organization is sensitive to the concerns of the governors, but noted that it was regulated by a federal agency.
“The opinions of our governors are very important to PJM and we share their concerns about increasing electricity prices – a phenomenon that occurs throughout our country,” said Jeffrey, a spokesman for Jeffrey P. Shields. “The PJM has no profit motif, no shareholders and no share of shares. We are fully regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and we can not make any major changes without the consent of this authority.”
When it was created in 1927, the organization was supposed to link three instruments in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Later, public services in Maryland were added that formed Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection or PJM. Joint work has allowed tools to share resources and reduce costs.
The main task of the organization is to oversee the energy flow through transmission lines that transmit electricity from power plants to cities. PJM also invent and enforces policies about when and which types of power plants are added to the grid.
Within nearly 100 years, the PJM grid has grown to include all or parts of 13 states and district of Columbia and stretching from Chicago to Virginia Beach.
The PJM has a nine -member board of directors, all of which worked in the energy industry or in other higher company jobs. It also has more than 1,000 members of the vote, most of which are public services, power plants, transfer lines and energy traders.
Most of these members of the vote have a direct financial share in the organization’s decisions. Members usually vote on politicians and issues. Some of the membership votes are public, but others, including smaller meetings of committees where preliminary decisions are taken, are not.
PJM is one of the seven large US grid operators. Each works differently. Some are limited to individual states such as California and Texas, and their records correspond to civil servants. California is considering expanding the authority of its grid manager to include other Western states in the PJM style.
Other grid managers act as PJM, as independent organizations that select their own members of the Board of Directors and executives without tickets from governors.
“The problem is that it is controlled and influenced by business energy companies that make up their membership,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the Energy Program in a public citizen, a non -profit research and consumer group founded by Ralph Nader. “This puts lobbyists of the energy company on the driver’s seat in the PJM.”
Mr. Slocum added that the federal regulator, which oversees PJM and other grid managers, was too reactive to make these organizations reasonably police.
The Federal Regulatory Commission for Energy has long pushed PJM to reform and speed up the approval of new electricity sources such as wind, solar and batteries. But progress was slow. Critics blame PJM, but the organization says that permission of delay, financing problems, government decisions and other factors are more to blame.
A federal agency spokesman said it could not express themselves because of the waiting regulatory matters.
But at a meeting last week, Mark Christie chairman said that reforms for PJM and other regional networks were delayed.
“For years, I have said that we are heading towards the reliability crisis,” said Christie. “The crisis is really on our threshold.”
And 2024 message School for international and public affairs from Columbia University concluded that PJM “has experienced the hardest delay and pending items in the new generation – projects entering the front of DNES have little chance of online by 2030.”
The time required to add new sources of electricity is critical because the demand for energy is growing rapidly. The PJM includes northern Virginia, which has the largest collection of data centers in the country. Technology companies want to add many data centers to other PJM countries, especially in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Mr Shields said that PJM has reduced pending energy projects waiting to be connected to his network and recently approved a new capacity that can serve 40 million houses.
In response to the criticism of secrecy, he said that PJM organizes more than 400 meetings of the parties involved every year and that the vast majority is open to the public. And the organization makes it accessible to the public on its website.
However, many civil servants said that PJM exists mainly in favor of the engineering industry.
Over the past three years, when Maryland had grown sharply, the Maryland has grown sharply, the state lawmakers Lorig Charoudian, Democrat, and promoted legislation that would force public services in its state to publish their voices on PJM. Mr. Moore signed a bill last month.
Mrs. Charoudian said that a handful of the states have developed or worked on similar legislation.
In interviews Governor Murphy of New Jersey and Governor Matt Meyer of Delaware – both Democrats – said they supported this legislation and worked on further efforts to reform PJM.
The other states went even further.
In December, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania sued PJM after the grid manager made an annual auction in which power plants submit the price they offer to supply energy when they often occur in summer. Prices set by auctions would result in a large increase in prices for electricity users. The highest offer in the auction contributes to the final price of PJM sets for all generators, which means that even power plants who are willing to accept less money would be paid higher prices.
State and pmm has reached an agreement This limits the price of a specified auction. Mr. Shapiro said that the agreement in two years will save Pennsylvanians $ 21 billion.
“I don’t think the PJM serves good people from Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Shapiro in -mail’s answers to questions. “We have to review whether Pennsylvania should be a member of the PJ.
Mr Shields said that the complaint was supported by five of the six countries concerned. He said that the settlement maintained the effectiveness of the existing market and at the same time supported the reliability and availability of the network for consumer.
But the settlement was angry with at least one more governor.
In the February letter to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJM Governor Youngkin of Virginia, he criticized PJM for noting other states before settling with Pennsylvania. He said that the agreement was part of the partial approach of the grid manager to operate his system, which increased electricity costs. Mr. Youngkin also said that the organization should fire its CEO.
“Instead of trying to solve these basic problems through open and transparent dialogue with all states, including Virginia, as well as other parties, the PJM leadership came out a one -off agreement with the only condition that affects all PJM customers,” Youngkin wrote.
Mr. Shields said Mr. Youngkin withdrew the letter without formally submitting it to the full organization “at the request of PJM”.
Last month, PJM announced that its CEO, Manu Asthana, would withdraw by the end of the year. The organization stated that the decision preceded the letter of Mr. Youngkin.
“We spend time talking about bad things,” Mr. Asthana said in his statement. “Prices are increased due to tightening supply and demand driven by retirement generator and data centers growth and affecting consumers. We have to work together in other ways to bring delivery to the system.”
