Ohio Industrials: PJM "Refused" to Discharge Duty to Prevent Anti-Competitive Conduct

PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. has, "refused to discharge its duties" to proactively prevent or reactively remedy anti-competitive conduct arising due to concentration of market power through incumbency, affiliation or otherwise, Industrial Energy Users-Ohio charged in comments filed in Ohio's retail electric market investigation.

"RTOs are charged with critically important monitoring and policing functions that are designed to proactively prevent or reactively remedy anti-competitive conduct arising due to concentration of market power through incumbency, affiliation or otherwise. However, PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. ('PJM'), the RTO on which Ohio retail electric consumers most depend, has refused to discharge its duties in circumstances where the consequences are visited upon retail customers," IEU-Ohio charged.

"For example, IEU-Ohio recently approached PJM to request assistance regarding the specification of peak load contribution ('PLC') factors by incumbent EDUs (load serving entities or 'LSEs' in PJM-speak). A PLC attaches to each retail customer for purposes of determining each customer's responsibility for the regional capacity obligation which is part of the PJM organized wholesale market design. A retail customer's PLC factor is the controlling billing determinant for capacity under PJM's Reliability Assurance Agreement ('RAA')," IEU-Ohio said.

"The process by which PLCs are developed and assigned to retail customers is neither transparent nor standardized. And despite the compliance audit responsibilities which the RAA assigns to PJM, IEU-Ohio discovered that PJM makes no effort to examine or test the methods by which incumbent suppliers identify PLCs. More pointedly, PJM's administration of the RAA provides no check against an incumbent supplier that uses its PLC specification role to benefit itself or an affiliate," IEU-Ohio said.