PJM responds to Pennsylvania governor’s complaints about electricity market rules
(Reuters) – Grid operator PJM Interconnection responded on Tuesday to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s complaint about power market rules, citing concerns that rapid expansion of data centers could lead to power shortages.
Shapiro filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday, arguing that the nation’s largest grid operator needs to change its market rules to avoid potential spikes in electricity bills.
“For more than two years, we have been warning that parts of our country could experience power shortages during times of high demand,” PJM said in a statement.
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The grid operator added: “This possibility has been increasing, primarily due to state and federal policy decisions pushing for early generator retirement, but also due to unprecedented and rapidly growing data center construction.”
The company has sought permission from federal regulators to lower market price caps and proposed speeding up the integration of a new generation of projects to alleviate problems such as power shortages during periods of high demand.
PJM, which serves nearly 65 million people nationwide, has faced increasing public scrutiny since saying in July that its annual capacity auction would result in record-high payments to power plants across its system.
(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
