In Philadelphia rowhomes and Baltimore apartments, the pain of summer electricity bills is still fresh. For many families, the spikes weren’t just a nuisance, they forced impossible trade-offs between cooling their homes and covering other essentials. Now, Exelon, one of the country’s largest utilities, is pushing a controversial solution: take back a role it gave up decades ago and start owning power plants again.
Calvin Butler, Exelon’s CEO, told Reuters this week that the company plans to push for changes in Mid-Atlantic state laws that currently bar regulated utilities from owning generation. “I believe the 2026 legislative sessions are going to be an opportunity for us,” he said.
A deregulated experiment under strain
Back in the 1990s, many states in the PJM Interconnection, the giant regional grid that serves more than 65 million people from Illinois to New Jersey, moved to deregulation. Utilities like Exelon kept their monopoly on power lines but were stripped of their power plants. Independent generators stepped in, creating a competitive wholesale market that was supposed to keep costs down.
But Butler argues the system isn’t working anymore. Demand is spiking thanks to energy-hungry data centers and the electrification of cars, trucks, and industry. PJM has already warned of looming supply shortfalls. Meanwhile, nearly 80% of recent bill increases in Exelon’s service areas came from generation costs, not the wires and poles that the utility controls.
“I’m one of the staunchest supporters for competitive markets when they work, but we are seeing that the competitive marketplace in PJM is not working,” Butler said.
A fight brewing in statehouses
For Exelon to own new power plants, lawmakers in states like Maryland and New Jersey would need to reverse course and allow regulated generation again. Butler says his team is already laying the groundwork with governors and legislators.
Exelon’s pitch: utilities can build plants more cheaply than private developers. They borrow at lower interest rates, already own land and easements for projects, and can often fast-track permitting. Butler has also tied the idea to equity, promising to prioritize community solar projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Independent power companies are pushing back hard. They argue letting utilities back into the generation business risks reviving monopolies and could ultimately raise costs. “Utilities will just pass those expenses to captive ratepayers,” one executive told me off the record.
The bigger picture
The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects national power demand to hit record highs this year and next. That’s not just because of AI and cloud computing. It’s also the millions of heat pumps, EV chargers, and electric buses beginning to plug into the grid.
Exelon, with nearly 11 million customers, sits at the heart of this transition. Its footprint includes some of the poorest urban neighborhoods in the country, places where even small bill increases hit hard. That’s what makes this fight over regulated generation more than just a legal debate. For households in Baltimore rowhouses or Atlantic City apartments, the outcome could shape whether their bills ease or keep climbing.
