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FERC chair says PJM capacity-market problems are decades in the making; hundreds of cases pending
Summary
Chairman told reporters FERC has roughly 338 PJM cases pending tied to last summer's auction and said long-term structural choices ' notably reliance on a mandatory capacity market ' are contributing to current problems; he also said PJM has approved nearly 40'50 GW of generation that largely has not been built and that only about 11.8 GW holds accredited ELCC value.
At a FERC press briefing, the chairman described the agency's workload tied to PJM's capacity market and warned that long-standing market design choices are a root cause of present high prices and resource shortfalls.
Responding to questions about whether FERC would investigate recent auction results, the chairman said the commission must be cautious because of the volume of pending PJM filings ("we probably have about 338 cases from PJM pending right now"). He reiterated a long-standing critique that after decades of relying on a mandatory capacity market for resource adequacy, some states and market participants now face the consequences of those earlier design decisions.
The chairman also disputed the notion that interconnection queues are the primary bottleneck. He said PJM has approved "nearly 50 gigawatts" of new generation through generator interconnection agreements but most of that capacity has not been built for reasons such as financing, site control and supply chain issues. He added that only roughly 11.8 GW represents actual accredited ELCC reliability value.
Why it matters: the comments frame the capacity-market debate as a structural problem tied to decades-old choices rather than only to recent operational issues. The pending docket volume and the gap between approved and built generation bear on reliability planning and near-term market outcomes.
The chairman said NERC should lead on reliability standards and that FERC will continue to handle related filings and investigations while remaining mindful of pending cases and litigation sensitivities.
