Pennsylvania says extended power-price limits could keep $2 billion in consumers' pockets

Pennsylvania electricity customers could soon catch a much-needed break on their power bills after an extension of a price cap tied to the regional grid.

State officials said the move could save the average household about $207 in the 2028-2029 delivery year while helping consumers avoid billions in added energy costs.

What happened?

An agreement between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration and PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator serving 67 million customers, has been extended, the governor said. That means limits on capacity prices in the electricity market will stay in place. 

Under the January 2025 deal, WTAJ reported, PJM had to keep capacity prices at or below $333 per megawatt-day for two auctions.

Federal regulators later expanded that arrangement. In April, WTAJ reported that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a $325 per megawatt-day cap for two more auctions, including the July auction that has now wrapped up.

Officials said consumers have already avoided $18.2 billion in unnecessary energy costs under the initial protections, with another $13.3 billion in savings estimated for the 2028-2029 capacity year.

For Pennsylvania, that would mean more than $2 billion remaining in the pockets of homes and businesses — about a 9% reduction on electric bills, or roughly $207 per household.

Shapiro described the move as a consumer-protection victory.

"For more than two years, I've been leading the push for the fundamental changes at PJM that are needed to ensure Pennsylvanians are not forced to pay more and more for electricity without seeing meaningful improvements in reliability," he said.

Why does it matter?

Utility costs touch nearly every part of daily life, from cooling a home in the summer to keeping grocery, housing, and business expenses manageable. Rising costs for these types of necessary expenses put a strain on people struggling financially, with Maryland seeing about 115,000 gas and electricity shut-offs in 2025, up from the previous year.

The state also argues that the extension prevents a much steeper and less justifiable rise in costs. WTAJ noted that without the settlement, Pennsylvania consumers could have seen prices top $554 per megawatt-day despite no matching reliability improvements.

WTAJ reported that even though nearly every available megawatt cleared the latest auction, PJM still came up more than 6.9 gigawatts short of its reliability requirement. The previous delivery year was also short by 6.5 gigawatts, suggesting that simply allowing prices to soar does not automatically solve supply problems.

What's being done?

Pennsylvania officials are pushing for broader changes at PJM beyond the temporary price cap.

The Shapiro administration said delays in PJM's interconnection queue are slowing new energy resources from coming online, making it harder to meet rising demand and putting added pressure on ratepayers.

The governor is also calling for governance reforms, arguing that states should have a stronger voice in the regional decisions that shape affordability and reliability.

That debate is also moving to the federal level, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission set to hold a technical conference on July 23 focused on possible reforms.

At the state level, Shapiro recently enacted updated electric load forecasting provisions. WTAJ reported that the measure allows the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to review and validate the forecasts utilities submit to PJM, building on similar legislation passed in November 2025.

Officials said that could help prevent double counting of major new electricity users such as data centers, improve transparency, and reduce the risk of unnecessary price hikes tied to flawed demand projections.

"PJM must move faster to bring new energy resources online, strengthen transparency and accountability, and ensure decisions are made in the best interest of the 67 million people who rely on this grid — not just PJM's members," said Shapiro.

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