The U.S. Department of Energy proposal “is simply unworkable,” said Andrew Ott, CEO of PJM Interconnection, in a press conference today. “We believe it is contrary to law.”

PJM intends to file formal comments later today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the proposal from the DOE.

The DOE in September, following intense lobbying from the coal industry and from FirstEnergy and other traditional utilities, proposed that FERC require PJM and other grid managers to credit the owners of the big coal and nuclear plants for providing “resiliency” to the grid because they store fuel on-site and run 24 hours a day. They also generate power at higher prices than new gas turbine plants.

In other words, the DOE wants PJM’s fiercely competitive markets to accept higher priced power from old coal and nuclear plants at whatever it cost to generate — plus a profit — the way the old plants did business before de-regulation……..

PJM’s announcement that it will oppose a direct handout to old coal and nuclear because it would distort competitive markets came just three days after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio announced it would argue against the proposal, primarily because it could raise customer electric rates.

PUCO Chairman Asim Haque said the DOE had not done a cost analysis of the impact the plan would have on power prices before ordering the FERC to weave it into competitive market pricing. The PUCO was to file its formal arguments later today…….

The formal comments of PJM and PUCO will reach the FERC on the heels of comments from the independent developers building gas turbine plants.

The developers of 26 independently-owned gas turbine power plants in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania earlier warned that competitive electric markets would be destroyed by special pricing for old coal and nuclear plants…… http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2017/10/subsidizing_coal_and_nuclear_p.html