EPSA Statement on PJM Capacity Auction Results for DY 2028/29
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | July 14, 2026
CONTACT: Christina Nyquist | 603.930.8818 | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) today issued the following statement from President and CEO Todd Snitchler on the results of PJM Interconnection’s Base Residual Auction for the 2028/2029 Delivery Year. EPSA represents competitive power suppliers with about 100,000 MW of electric generation resources in PJM.
“Today’s auction results continue to reflect a power system rapidly adapting to a new era of electricity demand. As AI, advanced manufacturing, data centers, and electrification drive significant load growth, maintaining reliability will require continued investment in generating resources. This increase in demand has resulted in increased capacity market prices from recent year over year historic lows that discouraged investment in power supply.
Competitive power suppliers are already responding – new supply is coming; the issue now is to address getting it connected to the system as quickly as possible. Following the price increase in PJM’s July 2024 capacity auction, generators have announced, restarted, expanded, or advanced tens of gigawatts of generation projects across the PJM region, while investing billions of dollars of private capital to strengthen grid reliability and expand electricity supply. Such investments, whether new capacity or uprates, require years to be completed – irrespective of who is undertaking the project, whether it be a vertically integrated utility or competitive power supplier, due to factors such as supply chain backlogs and lengthy permitting and siting processes.
Now, job #1 is turning our members’ investment into additional supply. Continued progress on improving and accelerating permitting and siting processes, interconnection, load forecasting, policies that encourage investor certainty and development, and market reforms will help bring new resources online faster while protecting consumers from unnecessary costs.
To be clear: any calls to allow utilities to bypass competitive markets and use non-bypassable charges imposed on captive customer bills to finance new generation should be met with great skepticism. Preserving and improving competitive wholesale markets – and keeping the risks of new generation construction with shareholders and investors – remains the best way to attract private investment, strengthen reliability, protect ratepayers, and power America’s growing economy. As we review these auction results in greater detail, EPSA remains focused on advancing solutions.”
Ongoing Market Response
A significant market response to growing electricity demand is already underway.
- Competitive generators have announced or added tens of gigawatts of capacity in the PJM region alone since mid-2024.
- Since 2020, PJM has processed more than 300 gigawatts of generation projects, resulting in 103 gigawatts securing signed interconnection agreements.
- EPSA member companies are optimizing and expanding existing resources through uprates, fuel conversions, hybridizations, and reactivations that can expedite getting new generation online in a shorter time frame and at a lower cost than building a new power plant.
- 811 projects representing approximately 220 gigawatts of potential new generation entered PJM’s latest interconnection cycle, underscoring continued private-sector investment in the resources needed to meet future demand.
- More than 130 GW of power expressed interest in contracting directly with large load consumers such as data centers to build new generation in response to PJM’s April Request for Information.
About PJM’s Capacity Market
The PJM capacity market is designed to secure sufficient electricity resources three years in advance to maintain grid reliability. The auction provides a forward-looking market signal reflecting future supply and demand conditions rather than current system performance. While the BRA is an important reflection of market conditions, it is not the final determination of resource adequacy before a delivery year. PJM also conducts Incremental Auctions that serve as an important “safety valve,” ensuring that new projects in the development pipeline can still be leveraged to maintain grid reliability – projects which may not have been ready or allowed to clear the initial auction due to timing. (Read more.)
Capacity prices represent only a portion of overall consumer electric bills and are in line with the past decade when adjusted for inflation. Over that same period, significant increases to utility spending on transmission and distribution infrastructure has been the leading driver of higher electricity bills, along with other charges related to state policy choices passed on to consumers as part of their utility bill.
The auction comes as the electric sector responds to the first sustained period of significant demand growth in decades. This is accompanied by rising construction costs and timelines to build new power generation. Competitive power suppliers continue to invest across a diverse portfolio of resources, including new natural gas generation, nuclear uprates, plant life extensions, energy storage, and facility expansions. PJM, FERC, and policymakers have also advanced reforms intended to accelerate interconnection, improve planning, and reduce barriers to bringing new generation online.
Read more in EPSA’s pre-auction results explainer.
###
The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide more than 225,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and X @EPSAnews.
