POLITICO details arguments of supporters and those, like AEE, strongly opposing the recent FERC PJM capacity market pricing order, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire POLITICO piece here. (sub. req.)
FERC’s December order to exclude wind, solar and nuclear power from part of its largest electricity market is drawing support from several largely fossil fuel power producers that argue the decision won’t hobble the growth of renewable energy even as it boosts coal and gas plants.
FERC last month voted to set a price floor that will effectively exclude renewable and nuclear sources that receive state support from the PJM capacity market. Environmentalists lambasted the order as an attack on clean energy and a bailout for fossil fuels, but its supporters say the effects on wind and solar — which were only about 1 percent of the capacity cleared in PJM’s last auction — will be minimal...
Though wind and solar contribute little capacity today, Democratic FERC Commissioner Richard Glick, who opposed the order, estimated that the price floor will affect 38,000 megawatts of currently planned renewables if the order is not changed. That's on top of more than 7,600 MW of existing nuclear capacity that would also be barred from the market, according to an August report from Gramlich's firm, Grid Strategies.
Companies seeking to win a unit-specific exemption from the planned price floor will face a burdensome process, said Jeff Dennis, general counsel at the clean energy trade group Advanced Energy Economy, and the measure will be "unworkable” for most new renewable facilities in its current form, though PJM is considering changes to as part of its compliance filing...
Read the entire POLITICO piece here. (sub. req.)