Capacity auction in 13 Northeastern states ensures 20% margin (USA)

The regional transmission organization PJM, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 states in the USA and the District of Columbia, announced that the capacity auction for the winter 2018-19 procured 166.8 GW of capacity, which represents a 19.8% reserve margin. Among the 116.8 GW, 3.5 GW will be ensured by new power generation facilities and uprates to existing generating units, 11 GW will be procured by demand response solution (load shedding) and 14.3 by renewable resources. The average price of capacity auction stood at US$164.77/MW, up by US$44/MW from the auction of last year. This increase is due to the strengthening of producer obligations retained in the mechanism capacity. Thus, PJM required bidders that 80% of the capacity being qualified as "Capacity Performance", i.e. resources that ensure a reliable electric supply during extreme weather.

The new capacity auction rules were approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reflect the changing nature of the generation fleet as more intermittent renewable and gas-fired generation comes online. The reforms will result in fossil generators investing in their power plants to ensure reliability during extreme weather events and to have sufficient fuel on hand. Exelon's three nuclear power plant, namely the Oyster Creek, Quad Cities and Three Mile Island did not clear in the PJM capacity auction.

PJM coordinates transmission power electricity grid in 13 States in the Northern East of the USA, namely Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.