Storage Changes also in Limbo

By Christen Smith

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM told its Markets and Reliability Committee on Thursday that all deadlines for upcoming capacity auctions will be suspended pending FERC action on the RTO’s proposed revisions to its capacity market.

The news follows Commissioner Richard Glick’s disclosure that he will recuse himself from any matters involving his former employer, Avangrid, until Nov. 29, after FERC’s designated agency ethics official changed his interpretation of an ethics pledge signed by all presidential appointees under an order from President Trump. Avangrid has filed comments and testimony in the case, and Glick has indicated he won’t seek a waiver. (See Glick Recusal May Mean No MOPR Ruling Before December.)

PJM had anticipated commission action before the end of year, when many deadlines for the 2023/24 Base Residual Auction would come due. (See “Capacity Auction Ruling Anticipated Before 2020,” PJM MIC Briefs: Aug. 7, 2019.) In July, FERC halted the 2022/23 capacity auction scheduled for August, refusing to “rule prematurely” on PJM’s request for clarification that if it ran the BRA using the existing minimum offer price rule that the commission would also agree to enforce any new rates prospectively, saving the auction from being rerun (EL16-49). (See FERC Halts PJM Capacity Auction.)

“PJM is not going to run forward with any BRA-related deadlines until we receive a FERC order and can establish a timeline from that order,” said Jen Tribulski, the RTO’s associate general counsel. The suspension applies to all future delivery years, though PJM will continue running Incremental Auctions for all previously completed BRAs.

Glick’s recusal also leaves the RTO’s second Order 841 compliance filing (ER19-469) in limbo, said Andrew Levitt, PJM’s senior business solution architect for applied innovation.

Although Avangrid was not a party to PJM’s compliance filing, Levitt said it’s unclear whether Glick will sit out from issuing an order ahead of the filing’s requested Dec. 3 implementation date.

Meanwhile, PJM plans to proceed with the multi-use, load-serving energy storage resource (ESR) settlement provisions approved in docket ER19-462. The pending changes detailed in docket ER19-469 — which deal with real-time and day-ahead market changes and billing related to charging ESRs that take transmission service — will be placed on hold. Instead, PJM will adhere to status quo rules, which allow ESRs to participate in all its markets and will count battery charging as “negative generation” that does not take transmission service.