Posted on 04/17/25
| News Source: FOX45
Annapolis, MD - April 17, 2025 - An energy ratepayer report published Tuesday claims regional electricity bills could continue skyrocketing by double digits over the next decade.
The independent power sector analysis conducted by Massachusetts-based Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. said that power customers in the PJM Interconnection region may experience an increase of up to 60% in ratepayer costs by 2036.
“Electricity customers in the PJM region (which spans all or parts of 13 Mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C.) are facing a looming cost crisis stemming from two major issues: (a) worsening barriers to building and connecting new generation resources needed to supply the electric grid, and (b) unprecedented increases in projected electricity demand,” Synapse wrote. “PJM now faces an inflection point.”
The Synapse report continued to allege that the region’s potential historic increases are due to an outdated approval process for adding new power generation sources, such as natural gas, wind, and solar, to the energy grid.
PJM’s interconnection delays are already driving up energy costs,” Synapse wrote. “These rising prices reached a tipping point in the fall of 2024 when Pennsylvania sued PJM over its capacity auction design.”
“This led to a $21 billion settlement agreement in which PJM agreed to temporarily reduce its maximum capacity market price cap for the next two auctions,” Synapse added.
According to PJM’s website, the capacity market is an annual process in which the power grid operator accepts bids from energy generation companies on how much power they would be willing to supply. PJM states that this process is essential for their organization to incentivize investments in new power generation, meet the necessary energy demand, and maintain stable prices.
Spotlight on Maryland sent several questions to PJM on Wednesday about Synapse’s report, including:
Jeffrey Shields, senior manager of external communications at PJM, wrote an extensive response.
“We are reliable now, but facing potential shortages as early as 2026,” Shields said. “We have seen some hopeful signs resulting from the actions taken by PJM and stakeholders, but the supply and demand imbalance has not yet been solved.”
Meanwhile, Del. Lorig Charkoudian, D-Montgomery County, told Spotlight on Maryland that PJM’s operations and policies were among the top concerns for lawmakers during the most recent Maryland General Assembly session.
“I’ll call them mistakes, failures, whether they’re intentional or not, at PJM definitely have led to a place where the market is not a free market,” Del. Charkoudian said. “The idea behind PJM is that it was going to facilitate a competitive marketplace, and what’s happened instead is its members are in a position to really hold back competition.”
The bigger impact that we should be panicked about is the prices and the rates that our ratepayers are paying,” Del. Charkoudian added.
The state lawmaker was the lead sponsor of several bills in the House that sought to tighten utility company regulations and stabilize electric bill prices.
Del. Charkoudian also successfully introduced and passed the bipartisan Utility Transparency and Accountability Act, which mandates Maryland electric companies to disclose their otherwise private PJM voting records on transmission and energy projects annually.
Referring to a recent visit to PJM’s headquarters outside Philadelphia, Del. Charkoudian said she observed what she perceived as two distinct operations under the grid operator’s roof.
“So, while I sleep well at night knowing the people who are in charge of actually dispatching the energy to the grid, and having seen how they operate, what keeps me up at night is the long-term impact of the political decisions [inside PJM], which primarily serve to harm ratepayers,” Del. Charkoudian said. “It is a wealth transfer from ratepayers, low-income ratepayers, middle-income ratepayers, industrial ratepayers, to incumbent utilities and incumbent generators as they hold onto their market power.”
Shields told Spotlight on Maryland that PJM is “not in the habit of making observations about legislative proposals and events.”
“You will not find a private company that is more transparent than PJM,” Shields said. “Nearly all of our hundreds of meetings per year are public and may be attended in person or via webcast.”
PJM’s spokesperson denied Spotlight on Maryland’s request for an on-camera interview regarding this story.
The grid operator said it continues to reform its power plant connection approval process, highlighting approximately 200 gigawatts worth of projects expected to be online by late next year.