Grid Guardians Unite: FERC Hosts Power Reliability Summit
Published Date: 6/6/2025
Notice
Summary
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is hosting a two-day conference to tackle big energy supply challenges in key U.S. regions that manage electricity markets. This event affects energy companies, state officials, and consumers by exploring new ways to keep the lights on reliably and affordably. Expect discussions on changes that could impact how energy is bought, sold, and planned, with updates rolling out throughout 2025.
Analyzed Economic Effects
7 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 5 costs, 0 mixed.
Five of Six Regions at Elevated Risk
According to NERC's 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, five of the six Commission-jurisdictional RTO/ISO regions are at either high or elevated risk of electricity supply shortfalls within the next five years. High-risk regions are expected to fall below resource adequacy criteria in the next five years, while elevated-risk regions could face shortfalls in extreme weather.
PJM Faces Near-Term Shortfall and High Prices
PJM states it may face potential capacity shortfalls as soon as the 2026/2027 Delivery Year, and PJM's 2025/2026 capacity auction cleared at record high prices. The notice links these trends to growing demand, rapid retirements of thermal generators, and slow entry of replacement generation.
MISO Needs Massive Capacity Additions
MISO's 2024 Regional Resource Assessment says MISO may need to add about 17 gigawatts of new capacity each year for the next 20 years, more than triple the recent average of 4.7 GW/year. MISO faces the most immediate risk of falling below resource adequacy criteria among assessed regions.
SPP Reserve Margin Falling to 5% by 2029
SPP projects its planned reserve margin will decline from 20% in summer 2024 to about 5% in summer 2029, creating a projected 5,950 MW deficiency. Over that period, SPP expects retirements to outstrip new additions by roughly two-to-one.
NYISO Projects Growing Winter Risk by 2034
NYISO projects declining statewide resource margins and expects the system to approach a loss-of-load expectation of 1 day in 10 years by 2034. NYISO's forecast assumes about 6,400 MW of non-firm, gas-only generation may not be available during winter peak demand periods.
ISO-NE Says Near-Term Adequacy Secured (2024–2028)
ISO-New England states it has procured or will procure the resources needed to meet resource adequacy for each year of the 2024–2028 study horizon and expects reliability and economic performance to improve over the next decade with planned transmission upgrades and other measures.
California Ensures Peak Delivery of External Capacity
California agencies (CAISO and the CPUC) have implemented market and regulatory changes to ensure external capacity resources procured to meet resource adequacy requirements are delivered during peak net load hours. These changes aim to align procurement with peak delivery needs.
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