Federal regulators are reviewing PJM operations amid rising electricity demand and reliability concerns.

PJM’s latest capacity auction secured nearly 7 gigawatts less generation than its reliability target and attracted only about 500 megawatts of new supply, adding to concerns about the region’s ability to meet growing electricity demand. Federal regulators are examining changes to PJM’s governance and stakeholder process to improve transparency, accelerate decision-making, and support timely investment in new generation and transmission.

According to Utility Dive,

“This is a problem that involves people at the federal level, at the market level, the state level, the registered entities, the market participants … all the utilities, the companies there,” Swett said. “This is a very complex issue that everyone has to coalesce around, coming up with a solution.” . . .

“The current stakeholder process in PJM is slow where it must be fast, opaque where it must be transparent, and vulnerable to vetoes and agenda control exactly when the region needs immediate action,” ”

Federal regulators also established deadlines for developing reliability standards and registration requirements for data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities. Additional actions addressed coordination between western electricity markets, disputed transmission-project costs, regional rate treatment, and financial incentives intended to encourage transmission development while limiting unnecessary costs for customers.

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At the 2026 MACo Summer Conference general session, “The Electric Slide – AI, Data Centers, and Counties,” panelists will explore how new electric demand—especially from data centers—could affect energy prices and capacity constraints, and how those pressures may reshape energy markets, infrastructure siting, and local budgets.