Most Maryland Residential/Type I SOS Products See Only One Bidder

The vast majority of mass market SOS products available in the October 2014 Maryland SOS procurement saw only one bidder compete to serve such load, according to a report from the procurement consultant.

EnergyChoiceMatters.com first reported that uncertainty concerning transition costs under PJM's capacity performance proposal "scared away" bidders, and the consultant's report, posted Friday, now provides specifics.

For example, only two bidders offered Residential and Type I supply in the entire procurement, and for five of the size Residential and Type I products there was only one bidder.

"Another measure of competitiveness we examined was the ratio of MW bid to MW needed. For the entire RFP we received approximately 1.8 MW bid for every MW needed. For the Residential and Type I products alone the number was 1.2 to 1. These metrics are substantially lower than last April's RFP, which saw 3.0 MW bid for every block needed overall and 2.6 MW bid for every MW needed for the Residential and Type I products alone," the consultants' report said.

The consultants noted that while PJM has recently announced some limits on the change in established capacity prices under its transitional mechanism, "the current level of uncertainty was great enough to keep many bidders from offering for the longer-term Residential and Type I products."

Despite the lack of competition, all average winning prices came in below the Price Anomaly Threshold.