The prospect of higher capacity prices in PJM have led to calls to delay the upcoming December capacity auction, including complaints filed with FERC.

PJM has since announced that it will delay an upcoming capacity auction by six months. The delay comes in reaction to the most recent capacity auction in July where capacity prices for delivery year 2025/26 were 800% or $12 B higher than the previous auction.   The Sierra Club called the auction unreasonable and unjust and joined other stakeholders that sought a delay to give PJM time to change auction rules.

At the center of the controversy is whether to include capacity of power plants that are slated for retirement but that continue to run for generate under “reliability must run” contracts. Additionally, the auction parameters may lead to boom/bust auction results.