Overview
- The 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction, whose results were released Tuesday, cleared at the FERC‑approved price cap of $325 per MW‑day and produced about $16.4 billion in capacity value.
- PJM procured 138,318 MW of accredited capacity but came up 6,831 MW short of the one‑in‑10‑year reliability requirement which means the region would have slimmer reserves during extreme demand.
- Advocates and analysts point to rapid data center load growth as the main driver of rising demand and higher capacity prices and estimate recent auction price increases have added about $220 to $320 a year to the average Pennsylvania household bill.
- To address the gap PJM plans to file with FERC for a special Reliability Backstop Procurement in September and is advancing faster interconnection tracks, a 'Connect and Manage' framework for large new loads, and tools to match big buyers with long‑term generation contracts.
- PJM says the temporary price collar limited larger spikes that would have pushed regional clearing prices far higher but the cap does not fix the underlying supply shortfall and the cleared mix remains dominated by existing fossil and nuclear plants with only modest new generation added.