In a statement today, Katherine Hamilton, Executive Director of AEMA, said the following:
AEMA is disappointed in the ruling (Advanced Energy Management All v FERC, Case 16-1234) by the DC Circuit Court to deny our petition to vacate FERC’s approval of PJM’s capacity performance program changes. Consumers will be directly impacted by the reduction in choice and the ability to save on their electric bills since the decision means that certain seasonal resources —in particular residential demand response and renewable resources —could be forced out of the market altogether. These resources are often replaced with carbon-based conventional generators. In fact, in the recent auction, the amount of demand resource–both offered and cleared–fell by thousands of megawatts compared with previous years. PJM has now effectively ceded jurisdiction for monetizing these competitive products in the capacity markets and it will be up to state commissions located in PJM to determine how these products will be operated going forward. As AEMA considers legal options moving forward, we will continue working within the PJM stakeholder process on wholesale competitive market issues and with state commissions on demand response solutions for consumers.