FERC’s chairman used a phrase today I don’t usually see attached to a grid operator: “grave legitimacy crisis.” Laura Swett wasn’t talking about a government or a bank. She was talking about PJM, the nonprofit that runs wholesale power markets for 65 million people across 13 states, and she gave it until the end of September to fix itself or have FERC do it for them.

I’ve been watching PJM all month without quite naming what was happening. Two capacity auctions in a row failed to pull in new generation. Prices hit the cap. The reserve margin kept shrinking. Each of those read like its own small story: a market-design footnote, a line in a chairman’s remarks. Today’s the first time anyone said out loud that they’re symptoms of one disease. PJM’s own members don’t trust its decision-making anymore, and some transmission owners are reportedly floating the idea of leaving the RTO altogether.

That’s the detail that got me. An RTO is a voluntary confederation: utilities pooled their grids because coordinating beats going it alone, the same logic that built every interconnected system worth having. The whole arrangement only works while members believe it’s working. Especially now, with data centers stacking fresh demand onto a grid drawn up for a slower-growing world. You can’t opt out of physics by opting out of PJM, but you can absolutely make the seams between regions worse, which is precisely what FERC ordered CAISO and SPP to go study a few days ago.

The new CEO says he’s “committed to rise to the challenge.” September will tell you if committing was the easy part.

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