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PJM tells Congress reforms cut its queue but members fault delays that raised New Jersey bills
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Summary
PJM leaders told the House subcommittee recent reforms have cut the interconnection backlog, produced more shovel‑ready projects and reversed some retirements; members from New Jersey and elsewhere said PJM’s earlier delays contributed to recent price spikes for consumers.
PJM Interconnection told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee that recent rule changes and process reforms have substantially reduced the backlog of projects waiting to connect to the grid, but members blamed years of slow modernization for recent price shocks.
Manu Ashtana, president and CEO of PJM Interconnection, said the RTO trimmed its interconnection queue from roughly 200,000 megawatts to about 67,000 megawatts after reforms and reported an influx of roughly 27,000 megawatts into a new pathway last week. “We have whittled that down to 67,000 megawatts, an incredible amount of progress,” Ashtana testified.
Context and contention: Ranking Member Frank Pallone and other members said families in New Jersey are facing steep bill increases that grew out of capacity‑market outcomes and long delays connecting new resources. Pallone cited PJM’s capacity‑market problems, including a year when capacity prices spiked in PJM from $29 to $270 per megawatt‑day, and blamed the operator’s slow reforms for passing costs onto ratepayers. Ashtana disputed claims that PJM had done nothing, pointing to the recent queue reductions and to new windows designed to accelerate additional projects.
What PJM is doing: Ashtana outlined a multi‑point plan — keep existing supply online, repower retired sites where possible, connect new generators more rapidly, harness demand flexibility, speed siting and permitting, and invest in natural gas infrastructure to provide needed flexibility. He said PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) received hundreds of applications (later described to members as roughly a 2× oversubscription) totaling nearly 27 GW and that PJM scores projects by technical attributes and constructability to prioritize shovel‑ready, reliability‑supporting projects.
Member requests and concerns: Members pressed PJM for faster interconnection cycles and clearer timelines. PJM said it expects to process a tranche of projects within the next 12–24 months and to move toward a regular 1–2 year queue cycle. Members said PJM must be accountable to consumers and that past delays have already translated into higher bills.
Bottom line: PJM credits recent rule and queue reforms with measurable progress, but members voiced continued frustration that the pace of earlier reforms was insufficient — a dynamic that contributed to large capacity price swings and higher retail bills in some states.
