With a united interest in restabilizing the market and protecting ratepayers, Governor Murphy and other state Governors called on the imperative for the grid operator and its members to make drastic and immediate change to:

• Increase involvement of and partnership with states
• Improve load forecasting
• Address both affordability and reliability
• Explore interregional transmission to enhance the reliable delivery of electricity
• Implement reforms to the capacity market to provide proper and urgent signals for new and upgraded generation
• Fix the interconnection queue to urgently approve shovel-ready projects, most of which are clean energy

The efforts outlined in the collaborative’s Statement of Intent include continuing to come together to strategize and develop joint positions on PJM issues, coordinating engagement on issues impacting states at PJM and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), as well as promoting alignment of states’ efforts to maximize impact.

In addition to Governor Murphy, signatories of the new collaborative include Governor Matt Meyer of Delaware, Governor Mike Braun of Indiana, Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Governor Josh Stein of North Carolina, Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

On September 22, 2025, states served by PJM: Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, hosted an inaugural multi-state technical conference regarding regional involvement in PJM wholesale market design and implementation to enhance accountability and transparency to state ratepayers.

As PJM grapples with and as states confront the cost crisis in the wholesale market and the need for responsive regional planning that adapts to new transformative system conditions including a changing resource mix, new and improved grid technologies, extreme weather events, supply chain and interconnection disruptions, and other conditions, reform is necessary to bolster states’ ability to engage to ensure the safe, affordable, and reliable delivery of electricity to consumers.

The purpose of the technical conference was to initiate a public process that considers necessary organizational and mission changes in PJM governance to establish an active participatory role for member states and jurisdictions, by:

1. Investigating and addressing gaps in state roles in current PJM stakeholder, voting, planning, board engagement, filing rights, and other processes.
2. Establishing a defined role for a Governors Group in PJM’s governance structure as the representative of States and jurisdictions, including proposals for formal recognition and funding within the PJM tariff.
3. Addressing the role of states in ensuring resource adequacy.
4. Exploring the evolution of RTO/ISO mission statements, governance models, and decision-making processes to respond to cost and resource adequacy concerns, increasing load growth, market demands, and state legal and policy requirements.
5. Exploring and adopting the successes of expanded state roles in other RTOs, ISOs, and regions

PJM Interconnection, New Jersey’s regional transmission operator, is the largest grid operator in the country in terms of customers served and electricity demand, serving 67 million customers across 14 jurisdictions. PJM operates a competitive wholesale electricity market, provides access to its transmission grid, centrally dispatches generation, manages grid reliability, and performs long-term planning.

PJM is primarily regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). All PJM processes and procedures, including its tariff and operating agreement, are subject to FERC's ultimate oversight and approval. PJM is governed by a nine-member, independent Board of Managers.

The Organization of PJM States Inc. (OPSI) is a non-profit, inter-governmental organization of utility regulatory agencies from all 14 jurisdictions in the PJM region. OPSI and its member state commissions are not PJM members, and do not have a formal vote in PJM's stakeholder process, nor a formal voice in the rule development process.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. Specifically, FERC regulates the rates and services associated with the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity in interstate commerce, and monitors and investigates US energy markets, including PJM.

On Tuesday, July 22, 2025, PJM Interconnection announced the results of the 2026/2027 Capacity Auction, which closed at record highs for a second year in a row, hitting the price collar of $325/MW-day. [The existence of this price collar was] spurred by advocacy from states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This 22% increase in capacity prices follows last year’s auction that saw an 800% jump. So far, New Jersey ratepayers have seen a 20% cost increase in their electric bills.

In July 2024, the 2025/2026 Capacity Auction cleared at prices almost 10 times higher the year prior, up to $269.92/MW-day from $28.92/MW-day. This increase was primarily driven by increased load, power plant retirements, failure to interconnect new resources, new market rules to better reflect risks (i.e., from extreme weather), and new resource accreditation metrics for capacity.

In the face of a regional electricity cost crisis, Governor Murphy has remained on the forefront of holding PJM accountable for a lack of transparency. Earlier this year, a collaborative effort by the region’s Governors achieved a temporary capacity market cap, easing what could have been an even more devastating electricity cost increase this summer. New Jersey and other states within the collaborative have also advocated for market reforms at PJM that would address skyrocketing electricity prices in the region, and for PJM to fill vacancies with bipartisan candidates who represent state interests.

In August 2025, the PJM Board implemented the Critical Issue Fast Path (CIFP) process for "Large Load Additions" to manage an expected peak load growth of 32 GW by 2030, with 30 GW coming from data centers. Critics of PJM’s proposal are concerned that residential consumers will unfairly shoulder higher costs and potential reliability issues caused by this rapid increase in demand.