AEP, a major US utility with operations in both the PJM Interconnection and Southwest Power Pool footprints, is "suggesting" that it may leave both unless major changes are made, particularly in interconnecting new generation to keep up with massive data center expansions and contracted obligations to serve them.
Why AEP is threatening to leave: AEP says PJM and SPP are moving too slowly to interconnect new generation as customer demand explodes, particularly from data centers, leaving the utility unable to deliver contracted large loads on schedule; CEO Bill Fehrman singled out PJM’s poor performance and a stalled stakeholder approval process as key reasons for the threat. I've written about this stalled process and PJM's many failed attempts to resolve it as, essentially, grasping at straws, resulting in pushback from multiple stakeholders, PJM states' governors, and even PJM's Independent Market Monitor, Marketing Analytics. AEP has generally been less vocal about issues within SPP, but is now also calling it out as well.
What PJM and SPP must do to keep AEP: Speed up and enforce interconnection timelines, streamline stakeholder approvals, clear the massive queue, and accelerate transmission and generation buildouts; consider market fixes such as a reliability backstop auction or allowing non‑utility "gencos," so projects can move from contract to service without indefinite delay.
As reported by Ethan Howland in today's (5/6/26) Utility Dive, "American Electric Power is considering its options for how its utilities participate in the PJM Interconnection and the Southwest Power Pool due to the grid operators’ slow pace of interconnecting generation to meet customer demand, Bill Fehrman, AEP chairman, president and CEO, said Tuesday during a quarterly earnings conference call. Those options include leaving PJM and SPP, staying in them or adopting “alternative structures,” Fehrman said. 'We’re committed to participating in a market that’s responsive to the customer needs, but we also know that we have to figure out a way to get it to move more efficiently and more effectively.' "Â
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/aep-pjm-spp-data-centers-earnings/819419/