“I don’t need to tell you that PJM powers the homes of 67 million Americans. And as the largest and oldest (electricity) market in the country, it is probably performing the worst. And I am concerned and that is why we are convening this technical conference.”
--FERC Chairwoman Laura Swett, to United States Senator David McCormick (R-PA)
I've been writing on this platform for more than two years about PJM's collapse, its near-total governance failure, and its total failure to ensure an adequate electricity supply to 67 million people. Add to that, PJM has foisted the majority of the costs to interconnect and supply power to AI data centers--owned by tech billionaires--onto ordinary ratepayers. Energy Central hasn't seen fit to advance more than superficial, brief, and derivative coverage of these very critical issues; my own, no fewer than nine articles on PJM's obvious troubles, with substantial references, have pointed our these problems for years with little traction.
Sadly, much of the material on this platform, once entirely the province of acknowledged SMEs and recognized industry observers before it was acquired by Smooth Media about two years ago, is now lost amidst mountains of paid and sponsored content and brief, derivative news blurbs.
Originally and for years an independent, practitioner-focused forum and aggregator for power grid, utility, and energy industry professionals, the acquisition overnight accelerated a pivot toward monetized corporate messaging and sponsored media that directly contradict one of Energy Central's own published guidelines (verbatim): "No Promotional Content. Keep content topical and valuable. This is not a place to pitch your business or service." Yet, much if not the majority of content here now, and almost always moved to the top of the various "Communities" -- e.g. Energy & Grid Management, Intelligent Utilities -- includes thinly-veiled pitches and talkshow-type promotional videos. The "no promotion" rule is bypassed by sponsors that pay Energy Central for "editorial partnerships," "thought leadership podcasts," and sponsored webinars. And in this case, it includes messaging from the very players openly lauding and pushing data centers, dystopian monstrosities that communities and states increasingly and even angrily oppose. These data centers are the gigawatt loads that specifically have overwhelmed the system, in PJM and many other grid regions, and that have driven ratepayers' electric bills, in some cases, beyond their ability to pay so that billionaires can benefit.
It hasn't been easy to write or voice these facts, and I've taken no pleasure in it, having worked closely with PJM for nine years, and with astonishingly capable professionals. But I'd argue that the cat is now out of the bag, and PJM at least has finally been called out in a way no one can deny, here or elsewhere. Hopefully there will be big change, and soon; looming grid failures and massive electric bill increases for 67 million people across all or part of 13 states and the District of Columbia is no less than a crisis.