Harrisburg, PA — Today, Governor Josh Shapiro submitted a formal response to PJM Interconnection’s call for feedback, urging the PJM Board to protect consumers by extending the existing price floor and ceiling — known as the “price collar” — for the 2028/29 and 2029/30 capacity auctions, as PJM undertakes a holistic market review in 2026.
After all 13 PJM governors and the federal government issued a historic Statement of Principles earlier this month with a plan to reform PJM’s marketplace that includes extending the price collar to protect consumers, the PJM Board is seeking public feedback on extending the price collar that has been in place for the last two auctions because of Governor Shapiro’s legal action. The Governor has been crystal clear that extending the collar is essential to protect consumers from unjustified price spikes while PJM fixes the structural failures that continue to drive higher costs without delivering new reliability.
Without the price collar, consumers across the PJM region would have paid more than $18 billion in additional costs while receiving essentially the same amount of committed power in PJM’s last two auctions.
“Until PJM fixes the broken systems that delay new power generation and drive up prices, Pennsylvanians should not be forced to foot the bill,” said Governor Shapiro. “The price collar is protecting consumers, preventing unjustified price spikes, and buying time for real, long-overdue reform.”
Governor Shapiro’s Response to PJM’s Board
In Pennsylvania’s formal response, Governor Shapiro emphasized:
- Extending the price collar is necessary, just, and reasonable. Structural barriers — including years-long interconnection delays by PJM, supply chain constraints, auction delays, and unprecedented load growth driven by data centers — is preventing new generation from entering the market in time to meet near-term needs, regardless of the prices consumers pay. Consumers must be protected while these problems are being resolved.
- Higher prices alone will not deliver new supply. PJM’s own analysis shows that no price in the upcoming Base Residual Auction (BRA) will be sufficient to attract new resources, while prices above the price collar will dramatically overcompensate existing generators.
- Consumers cannot be charged for benefits the market cannot deliver. Asking families and businesses to pay uncapped, skyrocketing prices when new power cannot realistically be built in time is unjust and unreasonable.
- Failure to extend the price collar would trigger further action. Governor Shapiro made clear that if PJM fails to act, Pennsylvania will defend consumers before FERC and in federal court.
Governor Shapiro also underscored that the price collar does not harm reliability or investment. Instead, it prevents windfall profits while PJM transitions toward longer-term solutions that can actually support new generation.
Governor Shapiro’s Proven Track Record Taking on PJM and Protecting Consumers
For years, Governor Shapiro has led the fight to stop rising electricity costs from being passed on to consumers and to get more energy onto the grid faster.
Throughout 2024, he repeatedly urged PJM to cut red tape, modernize its rules, accelerate stalled interconnection queues, reform its capacity market, and improve reliability during extreme weather. When PJM continued to delay new generation while driving up prices, Governor Shapiro escalated his efforts.
In December 2024, Governor Shapiro sued PJM, warning that its flawed auction design would saddle consumers with billions in unnecessary costs. That action led to a landmark settlement in January 2025, later approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which dramatically lowered PJM’s capacity price cap.
PJM’s first auction under the Shapiro settlement rules in July 2025 confirmed the impact — reducing costs by $8.3 billion compared to what consumers would have paid without the Governor’s intervention. A second auction held in December 2025 again demonstrated the power of those reforms, averting an unprecedented and unwarranted spike in energy prices and saving consumers $9.9 billion. In total, Governor Shapiro’s actions have already saved consumers more than $18.2 billion — with additional savings ahead if today’s reforms are adopted.
Beyond litigation, Governor Shapiro has built and led a bipartisan coalition to deliver lasting reform. In September 2025, he convened all 13 PJM governors in Philadelphia for the first-ever Summit on the State of PJM Interconnection, bringing together state leaders, regulators, consumer advocates, and industry to chart a new path forward. That effort resulted in the creation of the PJM Governors Collaborative — the first formal bipartisan forum ensuring governors representing more than 67 million people have a collective voice in PJM decisions that affect household energy bills and grid reliability.
In Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro has paired PJM reform with action. Through his Lightning Plan and PA Permit Fast Track Program, he is cutting permitting delays, getting new energy projects online quickly, and positioning Pennsylvania — the nation’s second-largest energy producer and exporter — to build more power faster while keeping costs down. In November 2025, the Governor also signed the Electricity Load Forecast Accountability provisions into law as part of the 2025-26 budget, giving the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission new authority to review and validate the load forecasts utilities submit to PJM — increasing transparency, preventing double-counting of new large energy users like data centers, and protecting consumers from unnecessary price hikes driven by inaccurate data. Independent analyses confirm these efforts will save consumers money, create jobs, and attract billions in new energy investment.
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