PJM Interconnection has sent FERC a corrected version of its plan to buy power plant capacity on behalf of a grid that is running short. The amended filing arrived on 29 October, the deadline the regulator had set after it held back the original proposal in September. PJM now proposes that bidding opens on 1 March 2027.
Why It Had To Be Redone
The plan answers a shortfall: PJM's last capacity auction, for the 2028/2029 delivery year, cleared 6,831 MW below what the grid needs for reliability, and PJM ties the last two shortfalls to large loads, mainly data centers, growing faster than new supply. On 29 September FERC accepted most of the one-time procurement but suspended it until 28 February 2027 and questioned how the costs were divided. Its concerns included the cost allocation, the collateral required from load-serving entities, and an opt-out for cooperatives and municipal utilities that it called discriminatory. The original bid window, which was due to start on 30 September, never opened.
What The New Filing Changes
PJM says it changed three things: how the charges are allocated, the credit requirements for load-serving entities, and what happens when one of them leaves PJM. Costs would now follow firm large-load growth between the actual summer 2026 peak and the forecast for 2028/2029. Distribution companies report that growth, and PJM assigns it to the zones according to their share. Those who leave remain responsible for their charges for the rest of the term.
The price ceiling stays at an average of $555/MW-day, weighted by megawatts, against $325/MW-day for the ordinary capacity auction. Contracts can run up to 15 years. The proposed calendar: bidding closes 28 March, the final target and supply amounts are fixed on 28 April, and results are posted on 10 May. The roughly 6,800 MW target will be recalculated, and PJM will subtract capacity that large loads secure through bilateral contracts with suppliers, a route it is helping to arrange in parallel. FERC still has to approve all of it.
A Rule Written Around Large Loads
The point for anyone developing a data center in the 13 states and the District of Columbia that PJM covers: the cost of new capacity is being tied to the growth of large loads, and the filing leaves a bilateral deal as a way to reduce what is bought on the market. Whether a project signs such a deal, builds its own generation or waits for the pool, that decision now belongs in the first cost estimate rather than the last. We covered the executive view of the same auction problem earlier (Exelon interview), and the power-plant side is described on our power plants page.
Sources: Microgrid Media, PA Environment Digest, Utility Dive
