HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says he’s secured a two-year extension of the PJM price cap.

The extension keeps the cap in place until 2030 and will save 67 million Americans across the PJM region an additional $27 billion on their energy bills, Shapiro’s office said.

PJM Interconnection, based in Montgomery County, manages the electric grid for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 11 other states and the District of Columbia.

PJM coordinates the movement of electricity from generators to utilities through capacity auctions, where generators submit bids indicating the price they are willing to accept to provide capacity. Those auction results then guide capacity prices for the entire PJM service area. 

In December of 2024, Shapiro sued PJM, saying its auction process was flawed and was saddling consumers with billions of dollars in unnecessary costs.

The following January, Shapiro announced a settlement with PJM to lower the capacity auction price cap from over $500/megawatt-day to $325/megawatt-day, meaning the cost of buying one megawatt of electricity for a single day is capped at $325.

That cap was set to expire in 2028, but the new deal keeps it in place until 2030.

Of course, the extension doesn’t fix all of the problems associated with increasing energy demands and what consumers have to pay to keep their lights on.

Last month, Shapiro was one of 13 governors who met in Washington, D.C. to sign what they called a Statement of Principles outlining the need for affordability, reliability, and market reform.

PJM separately has announced its own reforms to get more generators connected to the grid, while integrating new data centers and other large load customers. 

Earlier this month, PJM said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accepted its proposal to create a process separate from the traditional interconnection process for transferring Capacity Interconnection Rights (CIRs) from a retiring facility to a replacement resource at the same site.

Those rights allow generators to participate in capacity auctions.

Previously, a deactivating resource retained its CIRs for one year. Now the process is expedited if the replacement will connect at the same substation, will operate at the same voltage, and does not exceed the maximum generation output of the deactivating facility.