FERC on Feb. 26 accepted PJM’s request to delay the 2025/26 Base Residual Auction (BRA) from June 12 to July 17 to give stakeholders time to understand new capacity auction rules (ER24-1242). 

The commission said PJM acted in good faith and that the request was limited in scope, as it was for the specific purpose of educating market participants on changes to how the RTO will calculate effective load-carrying capability (ELCC) ratings, approved by FERC in January. (See PJM Seeks Waiver to Postpone 2025/26 Capacity Auction.) 

“Granting the waiver addresses a concrete problem because it will allow sellers to better understand the implementation of the new ELCC values and modeling methodologies before they are required to submit unit-specific offer caps,” FERC said. “We find that granting the waiver request will not have undesirable consequences, such as harming third parties, because it is a limited to a short delay of one BRA and will facilitate an orderly administration of the auction.” 

The commission approved changes to PJM’s risk modeling and accreditation in January but denied a second proposal to revise components of the market seller offer cap in early February. PJM’s Planning Committee has held two special sessions to discuss the changes this month and presented updated class ratings that varied as much as 20% for some resources from preliminary figures shown last year. (See FERC Rejects Changes to PJM Capacity Performance Penalties.) 

In comments supporting the delay, LS Power Development argued 35 days is the minimum market participants would need to understand the impact of the new approach to accrediting resources. The company noted it had asked the commission to delay implementation of the ELCC changes to the 2026/27 auction, scheduled for December 2024, because of the tight time frame between PJM’s proposals and the start of preauction activities for the 2025/26 auction. 

It also said it “was especially concerned that PJM had released few details of its ELCC methodology to stakeholders and had provided very little information regarding the accredited [capacity values] that would result from the application of that new methodology. LSP Development’s concerns became increasingly pressing as preauction deadlines approached and PJM still had not released necessary information for market participants to make informed business decisions regarding participation in the 2025/2026 BRA.” 

Stakeholders also need time to verify the results PJM has presented, LS Power said. The RTO has arrived at “noticeably different” accredited unforced capacity values for two resources located at the same site and with similar characteristics, but members have not received explanation for the reason, it said. “Not only does PJM need to provide ‘additional education,’ but market participants must also have the opportunity to review the underlying data so that any errors in PJM’s accreditation determinations may be corrected.” 

The PJM Power Providers Group also submitted comments in support of the delay, arguing the need to ensure accurate accreditation values warrants a delay. 

No comments were filed in opposition.