Can PJM Reform Its Own Governance?

The PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electricity market, is under growing pressure to reform the way it makes decisions. FERC’s push for change follows years of mounting concern over PJM’s ability to respond to challenges ranging from electricity supply and rising costs to rapidly growing data-center demand. Those concerns have now culminated in a broader question: whether the way PJM is governed is itself making the market’s problems harder to solve, and whether PJM can reform that system from within.

Seth Blumsack, Director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State University, explains how PJM makes decisions, why power is divided among its leadership, members and other stakeholders, and where that system can break down. He discusses the relatively limited role of states and consumers, how PJM compares with other regional electricity markets, and how much of its current predicament can really be blamed on governance.

Blumsack also looks at FERC’s unusual effort to broker governance reform through mediation, the changes now being considered, and what may happen if PJM and its stakeholders cannot agree on a path forward.

guest

Seth Blumsack

Director, Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State University

Seth Blumsack is director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State University. He is also a Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and International Affairs in Earth and Mineral Sciences. He is also on the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.

host

Andy Stone

Energy Policy Now Host and Producer

Andy Stone is producer and host of Energy Policy Now, the Kleinman Center’s podcast series. He previously worked in business planning with PJM Interconnection and was a senior energy reporter at Forbes Magazine.