Statement From Electric Power Supply Association President and CEO Todd Snitchler Following FERC PJM Capacity Market Forum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 15, 2023
CONTACT: Christina Nyquist | 603.930.8818 | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Targeted and prudent refinements to wholesale electricity markets will address power system reliability challenges and continue to support cost-effective, efficient, and cleaner power solutions, said the head of the national trade association representing competitive power suppliers Thursday following his participation in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s PJM Capacity Market Forum. The Commission convened the forum to address PJM Interconnection’s capacity market, which works to procure reliable power generation resources at the least cost years in advance through a competitive bidding process, serving 65 million customers across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) members have invested billions of dollars in PJM with the expectation of robust, transparent, fuel-neutral competitive wholesale energy and capacity markets, and provide more than 50,000 MW of generation capacity in the region across all resource types.
After providing insight on a panel discussing “Capacity Market Design Reforms,” EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler issued the following statement Thursday evening, following the conclusion of the forum.
“Competitive wholesale electricity markets, while they may appear complicated, are transparent and remain the best foundation to secure reliable power at the least cost, while incentivizing and facilitating innovation and efficiency to deliver cleaner technology and reduce emissions – as attested to by nearly every panelist at the forum. PJM’s capacity market has been an essential tool to properly compensate critical generation resources and secure electric reliability – and will be increasingly important as the nation confronts a variety of factors threatening electric reliability, including warnings of the premature retirement of dispatchable resources needed to support intermittent renewables and expanded electrification.
A variety of factors including out-of-market subsidies and other regulatory and policy decisions have hampered the ability of capacity markets to provide accurate signals and adequately compensate resources needed to provide reliable power. EPSA and other expert voices have long raised concern about the impact of these factors to reliability and the overall health of the markets.
EPSA and its member companies are working to provide meaningful solutions to the evolving challenges that are facing PJM and have been actively engaged at every phase of the development and refinement of the PJM capacity market since its inception. All markets adjust rules to address changing circumstances – for example, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission adjusts market rules for the New York Stock Exchange and others as the situation warrants; these markets are really no different.
We have consistently supported efforts to consider targeted and prudent refinements that may be needed over time as conditions evolve in markets. I shared a number of principles and recommendations at today’s forum, and we expect to continue to be an active participant in the process of making these markets work better for consumers and the stability of the nation’s power grid.”
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The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide about 150,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @EPSAnews.
