During its annual capacity auction, regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection recently procured 165,109 MW of resources for the period of June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. This included 504.3 MW of wind resources and 119 MW of solar resources.
In addition, the auction attracted 2,350 MW of new gas-fired generation, 7,532 MW of demand response resources and 1,710 MW of energy efficiency resources.
According to PJM, the auction procured power supply resources to meet consumers’ electricity needs three years from now. PJM says it procures resources three years in advance to ensure adequate power supplies will be available during extreme weather or other system emergencies to meet consumers’ demand for electricity.
The auction produced a price of $76.53/megawatt-day for resources in most of the PJM footprint. Prices are higher in some areas due to transmission limits and retiring generators, PJM notes.
PJM Interconnection ensures the reliability of the high-voltage electric power system serving 65 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
“The results show that PJM markets continue to achieve what they were originally intended to accomplish, ensuring reliability at the lowest reasonable cost,” states Andrew L. Ott, PJM’s president and CEO. “Overall response to this auction, both in participation and competitive bids, reflects the market’s ability to attract efficient, high-performing and competitive resources that support reliability.”
According to PJM, this was the first auction in which all resources had to meet capacity performance requirements, which were phased in. It also was the first to have participation by price-responsive demand resources (demand response-like resources that react to market signals), the organization says.
Additionally, under new rules approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March, 398 MW of seasonal capacity (resources available in one season only) cleared in an aggregated manner to form a year-round resource. Wind generators, whose capacity is greater in the winter, combined through the auction clearing mechanism with demand response and solar resources, whose capacity is greater in the summer.
Photo: 2020/2012 capacity prices by region
