Federal officials grill power grid operator PJM, which serves Illinois and Indiana

The Trump administration is taking aim at power grid operator PJM Interconnection over rising electricity bills that affect Illinois and Indiana residents.

Federal officials grilled PJM executives in a special meeting Thursday.

"There are truly excellent, capable staff at PJM," said U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary James Danly. "That being said, PJM is a mess."    

PJM has issued several public statements on its website over the past year in which it did not shy away from acknowledging a glaring problem — demand for electricity is on track to outpace supply.

PJM is responsible for more than 88,000 miles of transmission lines covering 13 states and Washington, D.C. A total of 67 million customers get their electricity through PJM's grid, including those in Illinois and Indiana.

PJM executives have publicly said the lights are at risk of switching off if the supply-and-demand issue is not handled.

PJM has said the growth of data centers is making it harder than ever to keep up.

Even though PJM grid customers such as ComEd in the Chicago area are making their own improvements such as swapping out transformers, PJM is struggling to convince investors to create new ways to generate power.

All this impacts consumers, who are paying the price in the form of higher electricity bills.

The federal hearing on Thursday was about that lopsided electricity equation. Government officials wonder if PJM is doing enough to try to address it.

"Hardworking American families have enough on their plates, and the price of electricity cannot be another source of strain," said Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Laura Swett. "PJM is the tip of the spear. It's the laboratory of national and economic security on which our country may rise or fall, and I'm not being dramatic. I truly believe that, and it is critical that we come out of today's conference with solutions."   

At the hearing Thursday, one federal commissioner used a sports analogy to explain what he calls a transparency and accountability problem.

"We have the stakeholders that are the players on the field. We have the board who operate as the referee," said Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner David LaCerte. "But PJM operates this in a little bit different manner. The players get to call the shots that the referees inherently have to make, and it creates a conflict in which it drives the players to unilaterally advocate for their own positions and own bottom lines."

A representative of the Trump administration says the energy shortfall is so severe that a bad winter storm will be enough to create chaos.

"This market will not have enough power, supply of power, to meet demand in the winter of '28/'29," said Peter Lake of the White House National Energy Dominance Council.

Lake repeated a few times, "We don't know how to fix this," and pointed to how other power grids operate.

White House sources have told Bloomberg that PJM could get broken up, that states could be given permission to withdraw from its service area, or that major reforms could be made to its governance — particularly giving state governments more representation on its board.

After the hearing, a spokesperson for PJM released a statement, writing, "We appreciate FERC convening today's technical conference. PJM has long supported continuous improvement, and we recognize that our governance and stakeholder processes should evolve as the electric system evolves. We look forward to working collaboratively with the FERC, the states, and stakeholders to identify practical reforms that strengthen decision-making and continue supporting reliable electricity across the region."

A representative from Indiana Gov. Mike Braun's office sat on a panel at the hearing Thursday.