Back On The Grid

PJM is dead. Long live PJM. If you already know about capacity markets, skip to the secret ending at 26:15. Otherwise, hope you enjoy the episode! And to future me listening back - remember VRR curve for demand.

Timestamps:

• 00:00-Intro
• 02:00-Hello and Goodbye
• 03:10-Fundamentals Start Here
• 05:10-Restructuring the Market

• 06:15-Basic NERC Reliability Standard
• 07:15-Market Power and Price Caps
• 10:00-Probability of Reliable Capacity (ICAP, ELCC, UCAP)
• 12:00-Balancing payment with penalties
• 13:00-Data Centers
• 17:45-Renewables and Capacity
• 18:00-Epilogue
• 22:40-Complications in Responsibility
• 24:00-PJM IS DEAD, Long Live PJM
• 25:10-Capacity Markets are All Made Up
• 26:15-Secret ending

Suggested reading:

• Analysis of the 2026/2027 RPM Base Residual Auction (October, 2025)

For reliability standards - look up EUE; LOLH; and LOLE all coming together for risk. Bidding rules - look up MOPR for old utilities that owned a lot of generation but had a ton of customer demand, so they underbid their capacity to distort the price and save money on consumer purchases. For accreditation - look up EFORd and ELCC will probably be changed in the future, so check out slice of day vs seasonal vs marginal and so on.

Nuclear fusion, space-based solar, and other cool changes are on the horizon. But what has stayed the same over the past decade? This short reflection is the last episode of the show before I graduate with my masters focused on the electric power industry. 

Timestamps:

• 0:00-Intro
• 00:30-Nuclear Fusion vs SMRs
• 01:30-Natural Hydrogen
• 02:15-Solar Power From Space
• 03:50-Selling Electricity Directly to your Neighbors
• 05:30-AI challenges are new but also old
• 07:30-Transmission
• 08:15-Markets and Resilience
• 09:15-Concluding Thoughts
• 11:00-Secret Hidden Extras

Let me know how the electricity sector has changed since you started following/working/studying the sector. Episode comments are enabled on Spotify or find me on Twitter or Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/backonthegrid.bsky.social

Extras referenced at the end:

• My paper on a small part of PJM’s Capacity Market
• Building Energy Paper

Is Demand Response a wholesale electricity sale? Not really under the FPA. But should it allowed to bid into wholesale markets? This week we'll explore EPSA, a supreme court case that decided federal authority over DR participating in wholesale electricity markets.

Background to start, but for juicy parts on EPSA, skip to Scalia's dissent around 5 mins into this episode. Market manipulation discussed at 14 mins. Bigger summary at 16:30. Timestamps below.

Topics covered include: legal no man's land for fed vs state authority, should DR receive full LMP, and how can companies manipulate their demand response payments? Also covers FERC Orders 719 and 745.

Timestamps:

Sources:

Should power plants be allowed to retire whenever they want? And what the heck is demand response--wholesale, retail, or something else?

This episode will start exploring reliability must run (RMR) power plant designations and touch on the Sierra Club's lawsuit focused on two coal power plants receiving RMR payments while not having their supply included in PJM's capacity market. Also, is the grid just a big sandwich shop when it comes to demand response? Tune in for a day ahead market vs real time showdown.

Sources:

(1) https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pjm-reliability-must-run-rmr-capacity-auction-ferc-complaint/728398/

(2) https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/energy-primer-2020_0.pdf

Timestamps:

If the grid was Goldilocks, what type of battery would it want? This episode is a bit denser than usual and explores some basic differences between flow, iron-air, and lithium ion batteries; plus the basics of how batteries participate in markets. Also covers some technical stuff towards the end. Listen at your own peril--you may become a flow stan.

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References:

When someone mentions oil, you probably think of cars, ships, planes, or plastic. But what about electric power? This episode explores where and why oil is used for electricity in the United States through a few case studies and will get you up to speed on some basic industry terms.

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Sources:

If someone asked you why it’s so hard to decarbonize the electricity sector, what would you say? Maybe you think we haven’t found the right combination of technologies yet. Maybe you’d argue that we lack the political will to change. Or maybe it’s the economic or social sides of the equation. How about all of the above?

This episodes explores several influential papers on technological lock-in, with a special focus on nuclear, cars, learning by doing, and network effects.

Works referenced:

Timestamps:

This podcast is a primer on electricity markets in the United States for people who don’t have time to read 200 page reports (though you totally should). We'll start with what's on your bill, look at wholesale auctions for electricity + bilateral trading, and wrap with some market issues like fraud, supply chains, and stranded assets.

Recommended reading to add wrinkles to your brain: https://www.monitoringanalytics.com/reports/PJM_State_of_the_Market/2024/2024q2-som-pjm-sec3.pdf

Timestamps:

Data center growth, REC accounting concerns, and behind-the-meter nuclear contracts. What the heck is going on with big tech companies and carbon emissions these days?

Works Referenced – check em’ out!

Rhodium Group, Taking Stock 2024: US Energy and Emissions Outlook, July 2024, https://rhg.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Taking-Stock-2024_US-Energy-and-Emissions-Outlook.pdf

Princeton REPEAT Lab, Climate Progress 2024: REPEAT

Goldman Sachs, AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand, May 2024, https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand

Bloomberg, AI Is Already Wreaking Havoc on Global Power Systems, June 2024, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-ai-data-centers-power-grids/

Financial Times, Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on

Utility Dive, Talen Energy defends interconnection

Katie Tarasov, CNBC, Generative AI requires massive

The Supreme Court eliminating Chevron deference has been made out to be a huge deal. But what is it exactly and who cares? Today we’ll take a look at the original oil refinery case that created Chevron deference in the 1980s, the fishing observer case that eliminated it last month, and some practical implications for our energy system – including a FERC ruling that may decide the future of many solar plus storage projects.

Sources and recommended reading:

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