PJM Interconnection, Ohio’s regional grid operator, opened the bidding window this week for its auction for the June 2025 to May 2026 delivery year. This auction is held to procure a sufficient amount of generation capacity for each year and to provide resource adequacy and reliability on a long-term basis at a reasonable cost. PJM President Manu Asthana has previously remarked that the capacity auction continues to be their best tool to ensure reliability at competitive prices in PJM. The bidding window will close on July 23 and results will be reported on July 30.

The auction arrives at a time when utilities have been stoking a scare that electric demand will exceed electric supply in a few years, leading to reliability concerns. Meanwhile, OMA-commissioned research suggests the future demand shortages are overstated.

OMA’s energy engineering firm, RunnerStone LLC, has previously published a memo summarizing the recent changes made to PJM’s generation capacity market. The changes will be discussed at the OMA’s Energy Conference on Sep. 14. 7/10/2024