For decades, a little-known non-profit organization has played a central role to maintain the 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 influence the organization, PJM, has on the costs and reliability of energy in 13 states. The electric grid that manages is the largest in the United States.
But now some chosen leaders have concluded that decisions of PJM are one of the main reasons that nut accounts have risen in recent years. They said the organization had been slow to add new solar, wind and battery projects that could help reduce the costs of electricity. And they say that the raster manager pays existing power plants too much to deliver electricity to their states.
Some governors have been so furious that they have sued PJM, have drawn up or signed laws to force changes to the organization, or threatened to pull their states out of the regional electric schedule.
The Democratic Governors of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania sharpened the organization sharply in recent interviews with the New York Times and in written statements. And the Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, called on the organization to dismiss her Chief Executive in a letter obtained by the Times.
“PJM has lost the plot,” said Gov. Philip D. Murphy from New Jersey in an interview. In another interview, Gov. Wes Moore van Maryland about PJM: “I'm angry.”
The chosen leaders – some of whom can walk for the president in 2028 – and their assistants said that the managers, board members and committees of PJM have taken many important decisions secretly. And too many decisions, such as making it easier to make it easier or more difficult for new energy projects to become a member of the grid, benefit established energy companies at the expense of residents and companies that use electricity.
The anger of the Governors at PJM is part of broader frustrations expressed by chosen officials, residents and companies about American grids. After decades of modest and gradual tariff increases, the electricity price has risable in recent years.
The costs of electricity for residents of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia have risen from 23 to 40 percent in the last five years.
Energy costs rose sharply after the natural gas prices enriched when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. But the electricity rates continued to rise after that shock because the demand for energy is growing rapidly, largely driven by new data centers.
Moreover, power outages have become more frequent because Utility equipment was poorly maintained and was not upgraded for more intense natural disasters in connection with climate change.
A PJM spokesperson said the organization was 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 for PJM, and we share their concern about raising electricity prices – a phenomenon that occurs in a large part of our country,” said the spokesperson, Jeffrey P. Shields. “PJM has no profit motif, no shareholders and no share price. We are fully regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and cannot make major changes without the approval of that body.”
When it was formed in 1927, the organization was intended to connect the activities of three utilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nuts companies in Maryland were added later and formed the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland interconnection or PJM. By working together, the utility companies were able to share resources and save costs.
The most important task of the organization is to supervise the flow of energy on transmission lines that wear electricity from power plants to towns and villages. PJM also thinks about when and which types of power plants are added to the schedule.
For more than almost 100 years, the PJM grid has grown to include all or parts of 13 states and the district or columbia, which is roughly crossed from Chicago to Virginia Beach.
PJM has a nine-member council of managers, all of whom have worked in the energy industry or in other senior business jobs. It also has more than 1,000 members entitled to vote, most of whom are companies, transmission and energy traders.
Most voting members have a direct financial interest in the decisions of the organization. Members usually vote on policy and issues. Some of the members' votes are public, but others, including smaller committee meetings where provisional decisions are made, are not.
PJM is one of the seven major American grid operators. Each functions differently. Some are limited to a few states such as California and Texas, and their boards respond to state officials. California is considering expanding the authority of his raster manager to include other Western states under a PJM style model.
Other raster managers function as PJM, as independent organizations that choose their own board members and chief executives without the input from governors.
“What is the problem at PJM is that it is checked and influenced by the business energy companies that form its membership,” says Tyson Slocum, director of the Energy Program at Public Citizen, a non -profit study and consumer group started by Ralph. “It places energy company lobbyists in the driver's seat at PJM.”
Mr. Slocum added that the federal supervisor who supervises PJM and other raster managers was too reactive to adequately monitor these organizations.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has long encouraged PJM to reform and accelerate the approval of new sources of electricity such as wind, solar and battery projects. But progress has been slow. Critics blame PJM for this, but the organization says that allowing delays, financing challenges, government decisions and other factors are more the culprit.
A spokeswoman for the federal agency said it could not comment because of the pending regulations.
But during a meeting last week, the chairman of the office, Mark Christie, said that reforms at PJM and other regional schedules were too late.
“For years I have been saying that we are on our way to a reliability crisis,” said Mr. Christie. “The crisis is really just around the corner.”
A report from 2024 from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University concluded that PJM “has experienced the most serious delays and backlog in new generation – projects that enter the queue today have little chance to come online for 2030.”
The time needed to add new electricity sources is crucial because the demand for energy is growing rapidly. The territory of PJM includes North Virginia, which has the largest collection of data centers in the country. Technology companies want to add many data centers in other PJM states, in particular Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Mr. Shields said that PJM had reduced the backlog of power projects that are waiting to participate in his grid and recently approved a new capacity that can serve 40 million houses.
In response to criticism of confidentiality, he said that PJM holds more than 400 stakeholders meetings every year and that the vast majority is open to the public. And the organization makes documents available to the public on its website.
But many government officials said that PJM mainly consisted of improving the utility industry.
In the past three years when the electricity percentages rose sharply in Maryland, a state legislator, Lorig Charkoudian, a democrat, insisted on legislation that would force utilities to reveal their voices on PJM. Mr. Moore signed the bill last month in the law.
Mrs. Karkoudian said that a handful of PJM states had drawn up or worked on similar legislation.
In interviews, Governor Murphy of New Jersey and Gov. said Matt Meyer from Delaware – both Democrats – that they supported the legislation and worked on other efforts to reform PJM.
Other states have gone even further.
Gov. Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania PJM sued after the Grid manager had performed an annual auction in which owners of power plants submit the price they offer to provide energy when the demand rises, which often happens in the summer. The prices established by the auction would have resulted in large price increases for electricity users. The highest bid in the auction contributes to the final PJM sets for all generators, which means that even owners of power plants who want to accept less money would be paid the higher prices.
The state and PJM have reached a settlement that dives the price of the auction. Mr Shapiro said that the Pennsylvanians deal would save $ 21 billion in two years.
“I don't think PJM the good people of Pennsylvania serves well,” said Mr Shapiro in e -mail reactions to questions. “We have to investigate again whether or not Pennsylvania should be a member of PJM. We are a net energy exporter, which means that we create more energy than we actually need. That brings us to a strong position to keep both consumer prices low and also create markets in other states.”
Mr. Shields said that the complaint was supported by five of the six states they have affected. He said that the settlement maintained the effectiveness of the existing market design and at the same time supported the reliability and affordability of the grid for consumers.
But the settlement made at least one other governor angry.
In a letter from February to the chairman of the PJM board, Governor Youngkin of Virginia PJM criticized for not consulting other states before setting up with Pennsylvania. He said that the deal was part of the fragmentary approach of the grid manager to run his system that drove up the electricity costs. Mr. Youngkin also said that the organization should fire its director.
“Instead of trying to solve these fundamental issues by means of an open and transparent dialogue with all states, including Virginia, and other stakeholders, Negotiated PJM leadership with a single state that influences the rates for all PJM customers,” Mr Youngkin wrote.
Mr. Shields said that Mr Youngkin withdrew the letter without formally submitting it to the entire organization “at the request of PJM.”
Last month, PJM announced that his Chief Executive, Manu Asthana, would resign towards the end of the year. The organization said that the decision was preceded by Mr Youngkin's letter.
“We spend our time talking about the wrong things,” Mr Asthana said in a statement. “The prices have risen due to the tightening of supply and demand driven by generator's retirement and growth of data centers, and it has an impact on the consumer. We have to work together on extra ways to quickly bring the supply to the system.”
