PJM Auction Clears 138,318 MW at $325 per Day Cap but Falls 6,831 MW Short of Reliability Target

PJM Interconnection secured 138,318 MW of unforced capacity in its 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction while falling 6,831 MW short of its reliability requirement. Regions operating under the Fixed Resource Requirement added 10,864 MW, bringing total available UCAP to 149,182 MW for the delivery year. The shortfall marks the third consecutive year the full RTO missed its target.

The prior 2027/2028 auction had been short by roughly 6,500 MW, and these were the first two auctions in PJM history in which the entire footprint failed to meet the one-event-in-10-year standard. The clearing price reached the FERC-approved cap of $325 per megawatt-day, 2.5 percent below the 2027/2028 cap of $333.44.

Without the price collar the clearing price would have been $554.72 per megawatt-day in most zones and $776.69 in the COMED LDA.

Payouts to generators for the delivery year beginning June 2028 totaled $16.4 billion. PJM established the price collar in coordination with the governors of its 13 states and FERC. The 2028/2029 auction was the third consecutive auction conducted under the mechanism.

The grid serves 67 million customers across 13 states and Washington, D.C. PJM plans to seek FERC approval for a special Backstop Procurement in September. A FERC conference on grid governance is scheduled for July 23.

PJM CEO David Mills said the results show demand for electricity continues to grow faster than supply and that the operator is working with government and industry leaders to bring on new generation and manage new load growth.