AEP's Akins: No Long-Term Pricing Structure Supports New Capacity in PJM

During Friday's earnings call, Nicholas Akins, CEO of American Electric Power, highlighted the still-challenged investment prospects for new build in PJM, despite the presence of a forward, centralized capacity market

"I continue to be concerned about the way demand side management has an advantage over steel in the ground in terms of the capacity markets in that structure," Akins said.

"And that needs to change, because if you ever want to continue making long-term investments to ensure the stable supply of energy to our customers, we need to make sure that there is a structure in place that's compatible for all types of resources. So that's what I'm concerned about within PJM," Akins said.

"There is no long-term pricing structure for anyone to go out and build and construct and finance new capacity. And when you have demand side management that is bidding in just for a few hours during the year but don't have the same level of commitment, that's the issue within PJM ... it really makes the capacity markets hard to read," Akins said.