MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — PJM Interconnection, the largest electric grid operator in the country, is hearing calls for corporate governance reform and increased transparency.
A group of elected officials from Pennsylvania, advocates, and environmental groups gathered at the PJM office near Philadelphia last week to speak out as energy costs rise and demand is forecasted to increase.
“When you look at your own month-to-month expenses, a big driving factor of that is data centers are coming online and projecting that they will need more energy going forward,” Vote Solar Senior Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Elowyn Corby said Monday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”
Corby pointed out that many other groups in the PJM service area that covers 67 million customers, including West Virginia, are having similar events to get the attention of leadership. As the rise of data centers continues to be a major issue, more groups, elected officials, and private individuals are getting organized, Corby said.
“There are communities engaging with PJM in ways we have not seen before,’ Corby said. “There are experts, state leaders, governors, and state public service commissions—they are a lot of people, but we need more.”
Corby said the new PJM President and CEO David Mills is taking steps to protect consumers.
“They’re working on ways to make data centers pay the cost of their own energy,” Corby said. “Data centers are really driving the increased cost in energy, so PJM is ensuring they pay their own way.”
The PJM network runs from Chicago to New York and includes a diverse range of economies and needs. Corby and groups like Vote Solar want PJM to listen to communities and deploy more things like batteries and energy storage.
“We want them to give the public and states a meaningful voice in how they make decisions, and we want them to be more transparent when they make decisions,” Corby said. “Look, if they’re making calls about how much our energy bills are, we don’t want any private votes.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a list of requests to the nation’s grid operators in June that included efficient transmission service application and study processes, including the consideration of alternative transmission technologies; prevention cost shifts; and transparency into transmission costs and behind-the-meter generation.
“It’s a key moment for FERC in Washington, D.C., right? Looking at reforms, they could require PJM to make,” Corby said.