As of December 18, 2025, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) members raised concerns about PJM Interconnection’s failure to buy enough capacity to meet its reliability target in its recent auction. [1] In a media briefing, FERC Chairman Laura Swett stated that these market results suggest that, “we have to act to ensure that new supply is available to interconnect to PJM quickly enough to meet historically surging demand.” [2] On December 17th, 2025, PJM announced that it procured 145,777 MW in its latest capacity auction, falling 6,625 MW below the 20% installed reserve margin target. [3] The grid-operator failed to meet its reserve margin while also setting record-high prices for the third consecutive auction. According to PJM, several factors could close that shortfall by the time the auction’s capacity year starts in June 2027, but FERC Commissioner David Rosner found the failure to acquire enough capacity “unacceptable.” In a decision issued on December 18, 2025, FERC gave PJM until January 19 to file a report on the status of the proposals that were considered in the Critical Issue Fast Path stakeholder process on integrating large loads.
[2] https://www.ferc.gov/media/e-1-el25-49-000-0
[3] https://www.ferc.gov/media/press-conference-december-2025