Today, PJM Interconnection released the results of its 2027/2028 Base Residual Auction, extending a streak of record-high prices and exposing the grid operator’s ongoing failures to deliver cheap, clean energy and maintain a reliable grid for its customers. The clearing price once again hit the $333.44 per megawatt-day price cap, and PJM failed to secure the capacity required to ensure reliability in the delivery year. In response, Evergreen Action States Director of Strategic Initiatives Julia Kortrey released the following statement:

“More bad news for people already struggling with higher energy bills: PJM will charge them even more, by the maximum amount allowed under the law. Working families are already paying higher bills because of PJM’s failures, and now they’re being hit again. This was entirely avoidable. Instead of fixing its problems, PJM is doubling down—slow-walking cheap, clean energy that could lower bills while protecting a system that delivers record profits for utilities.

“And the consequences go beyond higher bills. By failing to clear its backlog of mostly clean energy projects that could be built quickly and cheaply, PJM also failed to secure enough power to ensure reliability on the hottest and coldest days of the year, leaving customers paying record prices for a less reliable grid.

“PJM is raising people’s bills for promises years down the road, without doing the work to make sure new, affordable energy can actually be built in time to help. It has no plan to address runaway data center demand. It keeps dragging its feet on cheap, faster-to-build clean energy. And it continues to allow the same utility and fossil fuel companies to cash in while families get stuck with the bill. PJM must extend the cap on how much it can raise prices and stop running these auctions until it fixes its backlog and protects ratepayers from paying for power-hungry data centers. Piling new costs onto families already facing a cost-of-living crisis is unconscionable.”

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