FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC’s duties include overseeing wholesale electricity markets, approving the construction of new interstate natural gas pipelines, licensing hydropower projects, and maintaining the reliability of the high-voltage electricity grid. Additionally, FERC sets rates and charges for the transmission and sale of electricity, natural gas, and oil across state lines to ensure fair, competitive markets, protect consumers, and promote reliable and efficient energy infrastructure.
Source: https://www.ferc.gov/
The 2026/27 PJM RPM Base Residual Auction is scheduled for early December. Ethan Howland reports in today’s Utility Dive that according to Morgan Stanley and ESAI Power’s Scott Niemann, PJM capacity auction prices could plausibly clear at the price cap. Whilst clearing at the cap is a “very plausible” outcome, there are scenarios where pricing clears at “substantially” lower prices.
ESAI brings 20 years of experience analyzing and forecasting the Capacity Markets in PJM, ISO-NE and NYISO, into our new Capacity coverage of MISO. ESAI also maintains a MISO Energy Asset Database (Delivered to subscribers in excel) that tracks the MISO Interconnection queue to forecast Renewables Additions that produces a Probability Weighted Renewable Additions forecast, any Fossil Additions, and also any plant Retirements or forecasting plants at risk of retirement.
Ethan Howland reports in Utility Dive that after receiving two key Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decisions, the PJM Interconnection plans to hold its next capacity auction in June. Our Scott Niemann, Managing Director & Principal, said the FERC-approved changes will likely put upward pressure on capacity prices in most parts of PJM. Driven by pending power plant retirements, prices in PJM’s Southwest MAAC zone could break higher than the overall regional transmission organization.
In ESAI’s latest Capacity Watch report, we analyze ISO-NE FCA18, Forward Capacity Auction. ESAI’s coverage includes auction parameters, qualified capacity, and expected auction dynamics. These are all detailed in our Capacity Watch report.
It has been a banner year for news in the wholesale power space and our top five blog posts reflect that with heavy concentration of capacity and renewable energy news in NYISO, MISO and the PJM Interconnection.
Earlier this month, PJM issued an update on its new process for studying New Service Requests from generators seeking Interconnection Service Agreements (ISAs) or Wholesale Market Participant Agreements (WMPAs). This new process was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on November 29, 2022, and was implemented to address the significant backlog of generation projects with queue positions awaiting ISAs or WMPAs.
In ESAI’s latest Capacity Watch update, ESAI delivers our NYISO Capacity Market Forecast out to 2032/33 Capability Year.
FERC Approved PJM’s Queue Reform Proposal. These reforms are intended to address the significant backlog of generation projects with queue positions awaiting ISAs or WMPAs. With this approval, PJM will process New Service Requests under a “first-ready, first-served” approach going forward rather than its current “first-come, first-served” approach.
ESAI Power’s latest issue of EnergyWatch™ discusses regulations affecting coal combustion residuals (CCR) under EPA rules for wastewater discharge and CCR disposal and handling. Several coal-fired plants in PJM have announced retirement plans or are at-risk of retirement due to compliance requirements with these rules. Clients of our Energy Watch service received an accompanying spreadsheet with data about the affected plants. Also included are ESAI’s Power and Natural Gas forward pricing forecasts in PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE.
Ethan Howland reports in Utility Dive that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday ordered the PJM Interconnection to revise its reserve market rules, which will delay the grid operator’s upcoming capacity auction. This was a reverse of an earlier decision. In a 3-1 vote, FERC reaffirmed its previous decision to direct PJM to consolidate tier one and tier two reserve products, but said it had erred by approving changes to the grid operator’s operating reserve demand curves (ORDC), which help set the price for reserves. Our Scott Niemann, Director and Principal of ESAI Power said, “This rule change seems like a small detail, but the ripple impacts may be more significant and touch a lot of aspects of the PJM market.”
ESAI Power LLC
401 Edgewater Place, Suite 640
Wakefield, MA 01880
Phone: +1.781.245.2036
ESAI Power is a market research and consulting firm that delivers focused analysis of the wholesale power markets in the Northeast region of the US: PJM, NYISO, and ISO-NE. Since 2001, ESAI has been providing market-focused research product content and custom consulting services for Northeast power market participants including investors (banks, private equity, & hedge funds) & developers, generation owners & operators, utilities & retail electricity suppliers, regulators & RTOs, traders, and end-users & buyers.