Six ratepayer advocates on Monday filed a complaint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking changes to the PJM Interconnection’s capacity market design, which they said is causing “crushing” capacity prices.

Tribune readers got an unpleasant surprise recently: ComEd’s electric price is expected to spike next summer. 

Unfortunately, this is no surprise to the Citizens Utility Board. We’re all too familiar with electric customers paying more because of a shadowy corporate entity called PJM Interconnection and the little-known electricity “capacity auction” it runs.

The nation’s largest power grid operator says it’s “fuel neutral” when considering energy resources, so why does PJM Interconnection appear to be showing so much love for dirty gas at the expense of wind and solar projects? 

The electricity price for Illinois’ largest power utility, Commonwealth Edison, will go up significantly next summer because of a recent auction to secure reserve power. Grid operator PJM announced that its recent “capacity” auction sent prices skyrocketing from $28.92 per Megawatt-day to a record $269.92 per MW-day. 

Why are the prices so high?

Illinois needs to energize the modernizing of its power supply for two reasons: helping the environment and saving customers money.

The ComEd power bills showing up in people’s mailboxes are likely to take a jump next June because of a record price spike in a so-called “capacity auction” announced on July 30, according to the Citizens Utility Board.