Governors sign electric capacity agreement to collaborate in PJM territory
(The Center Square) – A bipartisan coalition of governors from states across the PJM electricity interconnection, between the Mid-Atlantic region and the greater Chicagoland area, signed an agreement they hope will lower energy costs for ratepayers.
At the Governors’ Summit on the State of PJM in Chicago Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and 12 other governors agreed to a memorandum of understanding that formally created the PJM Governors’ Collaborative organization, which they say will increase coordinated efforts between states to lower energy costs.
“We are set to pay for a massive transmission build-out, made more costly by the lack of productive planning and proactive effort and lack of consideration for interregional transmission,” Pritzker said. “Prices in PJM’s capacity market have increased over a thousand percent from 2023. Projections show reliability problems in the near future as the wave of data center load comes online. All of that is unacceptable.”
One way Pritzker said Illinois is working to bring new energy capacity to the grid is through nuclear.
“We have removed barriers to building new nuclear power plants and in the process of upgrading existing nuclear power plants that are operating today. That process is ongoing,” Pritzker said.
His remark about nuclear energy came just after Google announced a project with Constellation to invest $4.3 billion to expand generation capacity at 11 of Illinois’ nuclear generator sites.
The Google-backed project is projected to add 890 megawatts to the PJM grid across multiple states in the region.
PJM has had issues in recent months with being able to guarantee that there will be enough energy produced for the multi-state grid as demand for electricity continues to increase for a variety of reasons, including the build-out of data centers.
Pritzker has pushed the state legislature to pass the POWER Act this fall, which would require new data center developments to bring new energy generation capacity onto the grid, alongside other regulations.
Recent meetings with the Federal Energy Commission and PJM representatives led to recommended changes to the way PJM operates, as experts warn the grid could run short on power during critical times, such as severe weather, in the next few years.
As for the new collaborative effort by the group of governors, Pritzker said it will allow them a greater stake in the decisions made in the Regional Transmission Organization.
“We deserve a meaningful seat at the table, just as our neighboring states have had with different RTOs for years now. It’s time for a change. That was the motivation for creating the PJM Governors Collaborative to strengthen the voice of our states and leverage our collective resources to build a better system on behalf of all of our constituents,” Pritzker said.
The memorandum was signed by governors from Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and New Jersey – and the mayor of Washington D.C.
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