After FERC's MOPR Ruling

After FERC's MOPR Ruling:
Predicting the Future of Capacity Markets

Restructuring Today's Sept 28, 2011 multi-media web conference recording (audio and video slide presentation) is NOW available!

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The concept of capacity markets has always been controversial as they were created in settlement processes. The issue has become increasingly contentious of late, due in part to efforts by Maryland and New Jersey, in the constrained areas of eastern PJM, to build generation outside the market.

New Jersey created contracts, with funding from its ratepayers, for about 2,000 MW of new natural gas plants that were to bid low in the Reliability Pricing Model (RPM). Maryland had a similar plan, which never left the proposal stage. That sparked strong opposition from generators who filed a complaint, and from PJM, which proposed its own changes to the Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) acceptance of PJM's proposal effectively stopped efforts in Maryland and New Jersey to sponsor new generation outside the wholesale market. The new MOPR prevents state-sponsored plants from clearing in capacity markets, so if state regulators want to go forward with them, consumers will have to pay for the same capacity twice.

Generators in New England also filed a complaint to get what they saw as just capacity prices, with ISO-NE issuing its own proposal that would pay two capacity prices, the so-called Alternative Pricing Rule. But FERC said it was unacceptable to let state-sponsored generation clear in the market and imposed PJM's buyer-side market protections on the New England market as well.

How state-sponsored generation could and should interact with FERC-regulated wholesale markets is still up for debate. Get the latest on both sides of the dispute from four key industry experts when you purchase the CD of Restructuring Today's webinar "After FERC's MOPR Ruling: Predicting the Future of Capacity Markets" which originally aired on September 28, 2011. Listen as our panel offers its expertise about the future of capacity markets and whether states should create generation in restructured wholesale markets.

The FERC orders are up for rehearing and the issue is playing out in the courts. With PJM debating ways to get more long-term price signals to new generators and ISO-NE complying with FERC's order, it is clear that both RTOs still have work to do.

Building new capacity is important for keeping the lights on but it is still a divisive issue in RTOs with capacity markets. Gain a better understanding of whether states should create generation in restructured wholesale markets from this notable panel of experts:

Doug Egan, CEO, Competitive Power Ventures
William Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy, John F Kennedy School of Government
Sonny Popowsky, consumer advocate, Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate
John Shelk, president and CEO, Electric Power Supply Association
James Downing (Moderator), editor, Restructuring Today

Find out what changes are likely for capacity markets and whether there is something better than PJM's MOPR when you purchase the CD of this webinar that was originally held September 28, 2011. Use it for yourself, or better yet, set up a training session for you and other members of your staff at a time that's most convenient for everyone.

Distinguished Speakers

Doug Egan is chairman and CEO of Competitive Power Ventures (CPV), which he co-founded with Gary Lambert in 1999. Under his leadership, CPV has focused on traditional and renewable-power-generation project development and asset-management services for major energy and finance-industry clients and investors. Egan provides the strategic direction for the company as it responds to the evolution of the North American market. With more than 25 years in the independent power industry, he is well known to the power, natural gas and financial communities. Prior to forming CPV, Egan was senior vice president for development at PG&E Generating Company, formerly US Generating Company. At PG&E, he was responsible for non-regulated power project development and the initiation of seven natural-gas-fired power generation projects and a wind project representing more than 5,000 MW of capacity. Prior to assuming control of PG&E's development program, he was vice president and regional executive for their northeast region where he supervised six operating IPP projects. Before PG&E, Egan was vice president of development at J Makowski Company of Boston where he was responsible for the acquisition and financial restructuring of Altresco Financial. Additionally, he held the position of general counsel for Intercontinental Energy through the development and construction of two cogeneration projects representing more than 600 MWs. Egan is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School.

William Hogan is the Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy at the John F Kennedy School of Government. He is research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group at M-R CBG and chair of the Kennedy School Faculty Appointments Committee. He has served on the faculty of Stanford University where he founded the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) and is past president of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). Hogan's research focuses on the interaction of energy economics and public policy with an emphasis on the restructuring of the electricity industry in the United States and worldwide. He has worked to design the market structures and market rules by which regional transmission organizations coordinate bid-based markets for energy, ancillary services and financial transmission rights. Hogan received his undergraduate degree from the US Air Force Academy and his PhD from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Sonny Popowsky has served as the Consumer Advocate of Pennsylvania since 1990 and has worked at the Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) since 1979. He was the president of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) from 1996 to 1998 and was previously chairman of the NASUCA Electric Committee. He served on the Board of Trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) from 1997 to 2001 and the NERC Stakeholders Committee from 2001 to 2006. He also served on the board of directors of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) and is currently a member of the Keystone Energy Board. In 1988, he briefed and argued the landmark United States Supreme Court case of Duquesne Light Company v Barasch, in which the court upheld the position of the OCA that two Pennsylvania utilities had no constitutional right to charge consumers for the costs of four cancelled nuclear power plants. Popowsky graduated cum laude from Yale University and received his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as an editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Prior to joining the OCA, he was an associate at the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz.

John Shelk is president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, the national trade association representing competitive wholesale electricity suppliers. He is responsible for overall management and strategic direction, including legislative affairs, regulatory policy and public affairs. He served as a counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on several energy and environmental matters, including the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and what became the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Shelk earned his Juris Doctor with honors from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in American government, also from Georgetown, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and selected as a George F Baker Scholar.

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