Briefly

North American Power to Expand Non-Profit Affinity Programs
North American Power reported yesterday information related to its ".Org" affinity program for non-profits, in announcing its intent to grow the program. Non-profits participating in the affinity program enroll customers with North American Power through their dedicated NAPower.org website, and receive a one-time donation of $10 per customer plus a residual based on each customer's usage (two dollars per month based on 1,000 kWh monthly usage).

MEA: P3 Capacity RFP Complaint is an "Assault" on States' Authority
The complaint from the PJM Power Providers Group (P3) filed at FERC concerning New Jersey's capacity RFP law (2/2) is, "an aggressive assault on States' ability to take control of their own energy future," the Maryland Energy Administration said in asking FERC to allow Maryland and other parties a "reasonable additional period of time," to answer the complaint. "P3 seeks, in so many words, to thwart important and carefully considered efforts on the part of the States of Maryland and New Jersey to plan for the long-term electricity needs of their citizens and ratepayers. The 'reforms' sought in the P3 Complaint could preclude our PSC from exercising its authority under Maryland law to order new generation to meet the demands of Maryland customers, and could impair our State's efforts to build off-shore wind generation. These are critical issues of State policy, and there potentially are billions of dollars -- ratepayer dollars -- at stake," MEA said (EL11-20).

Generators Protest Nstar-NU Application at FERC
The Electric Power Supply Association and the New England Power Generators Association (filing jointly) and NRG Energy filed protests at FERC concerning the merger of Northeast Utilities and Nstar (EC11-35). Generators did not raise any new issues not raised in similar state proceedings (see 1/6). However, generators also took the opportunity to more broadly attack so-called "buyer side market power" in ISO New England, with EPSA/NEPGA going so far as to claim, "buyer-side market power has already seriously harmed competition and reliability in New England," though generators offer no substantiation for this assertion (generators cite a litany of FERC orders supporting a proper alternative minimum price rule, but do not offer any evidence aside from assertions that the current construct is harming "competition" or "reliability").