The largest grid in America may have outgrown its ability to manage itself
At the heart of America's largest electrical grid, a quiet question has grown too loud to ignore: can an institution become so vast that it loses the very capacity it was built to provide? FERC Chairman Swett has brought this tension into the open, asking whether PJM Interconnection — serving 65 million people across thirteen states — has exceeded the boundaries of its own effective governance. The concern is not merely technical but deeply civic, as rising power bills translate abstract regulatory failures into household burdens. What unfolds next may redefine how the nation thinks about scale, accountability, and the infrastructure that quietly sustains modern life.
- FERC's own chairman has publicly cast doubt on whether PJM, the largest grid operator in the country, can still manage itself with the precision that 65 million electricity customers require.
- Rising electricity bills have turned a slow-building regulatory concern into a political flashpoint, with state governors — including Maryland's — confronting PJM leadership directly rather than working through quiet back channels.
- The structural tension is compounding: as PJM's geographic and operational complexity grows, the coordination layers multiply, and decisions made in one region increasingly ripple into unintended consequences elsewhere.
- Industry leaders and officials gathered at PJM's annual meeting are now openly weighing two uncomfortable paths — breaking the grid into smaller regional operators or fundamentally overhauling how the current structure governs itself.
- FERC holds the authority to mandate structural changes if it finds PJM no longer serves the public interest, meaning what began as a chairman's question could become a regulatory order reshaping the grid for generations.
The largest electrical grid in the United States may have outgrown its own ability to manage itself. FERC Chairman Swett has made that concern public, questioning whether PJM Interconnection — the grid operator serving 65 million people across thirteen states and the District of Columbia — has become too unwieldy to function with the precision modern power systems demand.
PJM's footprint stretches from New Jersey to Illinois and down through the Carolinas. Managing power flows across that territory, coordinating thousands of generators and millions of consumers, has begun to strain the organization's capacity to hold costs down and reliability high. As scale increases, coordination layers multiply exponentially, and a failure in one corner can cascade across the whole.
The political pressure has arrived alongside the regulatory concern. State governors facing constituents angry about rising electricity bills have begun pushing back against PJM's structure, arguing it has made the operator less responsive to regional needs. Maryland's governor brought those complaints directly to PJM leadership, and industry figures gathered at PJM's annual meeting acknowledged that the status quo may no longer hold.
At the core is a question of governance: when an organization grows beyond a certain threshold, the mechanisms that once worked — committees, decision processes, regional responsiveness — begin to break down. Rising power bills have become the visible symptom of these deeper structural strains, and regulators are now asking whether breaking PJM into smaller operators might restore efficiency, or whether reformed governance of the existing structure could achieve the same.
FERC has the authority to order structural changes if it determines PJM no longer serves the public interest. State governors hold leverage through their regulatory authority over in-state utilities. What began as a chairman's question has become the central issue in how America's most consequential power grid will be organized — and the answer will likely shape the electricity system for decades.
The largest electrical grid in the United States may have outgrown its own ability to manage itself. That was the stark suggestion from FERC Chairman Swett in recent weeks, as the federal regulator began asking whether PJM Interconnection—the grid operator that serves 65 million people across thirteen states and the District of Columbia—has simply become too unwieldy to function with the precision that modern power systems demand.
Swett's concern touches on a problem that has been building quietly for years. PJM's footprint is enormous. It stretches from New Jersey to Illinois, from the Great Lakes down through the Carolinas. The sheer geographic and operational complexity of managing power flows across that territory, coordinating thousands of generators and millions of consumers, has begun to strain the organization's ability to keep costs down and reliability high. When a grid operator grows this large, the layers of coordination required multiply exponentially. A decision made in one region ripples across the entire system. A failure in one corner can cascade outward.
The timing of Swett's public questioning is significant. State governors, particularly those facing pressure from constituents angry about rising electricity bills, have begun pushing back against PJM's current structure. They argue that the grid operator's size has made it less responsive to regional needs and less effective at controlling costs. Maryland's governor brought these complaints directly to PJM leadership, signaling that the frustration is no longer confined to regulatory back channels. Industry leaders and government officials gathered at PJM's annual meeting to discuss potential paths forward, acknowledging that the status quo may no longer be tenable.
The core issue is one of governance and oversight. A grid operator of PJM's scale requires extraordinary coordination among utilities, generators, regulators, and state officials. When the organization grows beyond a certain threshold, the mechanisms that once worked—the committees, the decision-making processes, the ability to respond quickly to regional variations—begin to break down. Information gets lost in translation. Priorities become muddled. What works for one part of the grid may harm another.
Rising power bills have become the visible symptom of these deeper structural problems. Consumers across PJM's territory have seen their electricity costs climb, and they want answers. Regulators and elected officials are now asking whether PJM's size is part of the problem—whether breaking it into smaller, more manageable regional operators might improve efficiency and bring costs down. The alternative is to keep the current structure but fundamentally reform how PJM operates, giving it new tools and new governance structures to handle its vast domain.
What happens next will likely shape the electricity system for decades. FERC has the authority to order structural changes if it determines that PJM's current organization is no longer serving the public interest. State governors have leverage through their regulatory authority over utilities within their borders. And PJM itself faces pressure to prove that it can manage its sprawling territory effectively, or accept that smaller, more focused grid operators might serve the region better. The question Swett raised—whether PJM has simply grown too large—is no longer academic. It is now a central question in how America's largest power grid will be organized.
Notable Quotes
PJM may be too big to function effectively as currently structured— FERC Chairman Swett
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
When the FERC chairman says a grid operator is 'too big to function,' what does that actually mean in practical terms?
It means the organization has grown so large that the basic mechanics of decision-making and coordination have started to fail. You have thousands of generators, millions of consumers, and dozens of utilities all trying to coordinate through a single operator. At some point, the communication breaks down.
But hasn't PJM been operating at this scale for years? Why is this a problem now?
It has, but the grid has become more complex. You've got renewable energy sources that behave differently than coal plants. You've got more demand fluctuations. The old coordination systems that worked when the grid was simpler are straining under the new reality.
The governors are complaining about power bills. Is that really a PJM problem, or is that just the cost of electricity going up everywhere?
Both. But the question is whether PJM's structure is making it worse. If the grid operator is too large to respond quickly to regional needs, it might be approving projects or making decisions that work for the whole system but hurt specific regions. That inefficiency gets passed to consumers.
What would breaking up PJM actually look like?
You'd have smaller regional operators, each managing a more manageable territory. The Northeast might be one grid, the Midwest another. Each would have its own governance structure, its own decision-making processes. They'd still coordinate with each other, but each region would have more autonomy.
And that would lower power bills?
Potentially. Smaller organizations can be more responsive. They can make decisions faster. They can tailor solutions to regional needs rather than imposing one-size-fits-all policies. But there's a trade-off—you lose some of the efficiency gains that come from managing a large, integrated system.
So what's the most likely outcome?
FERC will probably push for governance reforms first—new structures, new decision-making processes—before ordering a breakup. But if those reforms don't work, structural change becomes inevitable.