The U.S. Department of Energy approved PJM’s request to extend an order allowing Talen Energy to continue operating its oil-fired H.A. Wagner Unit 4 to exceed the 438 hours it is permitted to operate each year.

The Oct. 24 order allows the 397-MW generator, located outside Baltimore, to continue operating for 80 days to mitigate the risk of load shed during “certain system conditions or transmission limitations” within the Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) region. The order lifts the run hour limit when PJM declares or anticipates a maximum generation alert or transmission security emergency. (See DOE Lifts Run Hour Restrictions on Maryland Generator.)

“PJM anticipated that, for the remainder of 2025, there will be a continued need to schedule Wagner Unit 4 in order to maintain reliable system operations during projected peak demand and/or increased flows on transmission facilities that are required to serve the BG&E Zone,” the order states. “Additional circumstances that could cause the need for increased scheduling of Wagner Unit 4 include high system demand, additional transmission facility outages, and generation outages or a combination of these factors.”

In its application asking DOE to exercise its Federal Power Act (FPA) 202c authority, PJM said the EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) informed it that the consent order imposing the run hour limitation would not be able to be modified within 2025 and it has taken steps to avoid dispatching the unit as much as possible.

PJM to Seek Extension of Order Defining Wagner, Brandon Shores as Capacity

PJM Senior Counsel Chen Lu outlined the RTO’s intention to ask FERC to include Wagner and the adjacent 1,289-MW Brandon Shores coal-fired generator in the capacity market supply stack for the 2028/29 Base Residual Auction (BRA), extending an order defining the two resources as capacity in the prior two auctions (ER25-682). (See FERC OKs Changes to PJM Capacity Market to Cushion Consumer Impacts.)

PJM’s governing documents allow reliability-must-run (RMR) units to be exempted from the requirement that resources offer into the capacity market.

However, against a backdrop of tightening supply/demand balance, consumer advocates argued that if the generators are being relied on for transmission security, it also should be assumed they will be available during capacity deployments. Opponents of that stance protested that including RMR units in the supply stack would distort market signals and suppress the prices needed to bring on replacement resources.

The commission’s order was limited to two delivery years to give PJM time to work toward a pro forma RMR agreement that defines resources as capacity. That effort is ongoing in the Deactivation Enhancement Senior Task Force (DESTF), where PJM has presented a draft pro forma agreement.

“It’s really a stop-gap for these two Talen units,” Lu said, adding that it doesn’t make sense to shift the two generators onto an eventual pro forma agreement since they’re already operating under a FERC-approved RMR.