Energy prices in Maryland are going up. They rose in January of this year mainly because of utility overspending on distribution networks, this summer and fall, bills are going to go up again but this time because of increases to the supply part of the bill, the responsibility of our region’s grid manager, PJM. 

 It is well established that the private organization PJM that oversees our grid makes proposed new energy projects wait in a queue for a very long time before allowing them to get built, longer than other grids. Some projects spend more than 5 years in this energy permitting purgatory. It is also generally understood by those who follow energy issues that by slowing down the buildout of new deployment PJM has contributed to increasing energy prices.

What we have today that is new and exciting is a report, Tackling the PJM Electricity Cost Crisis, which quantifies exactly how much PJM’s mismanagement of their queue is costing all of us.

I am thrilled today to be joined by Sabine Chavin who is a Senior Associate at Synapse Energy, the research and consulting firm that conducted the study, and Julia Kortrey who is the Deputy Director of state policy at Evergreen Action, the non-profit who commissioned the study.