MAREC Action Statement on FERC Approval of PJM RRI
Washington, D.C. “We acknowledge that bringing additional energy resources online is critical to replace older retiring power plants and to meet rapidly growing electricity demand. But make no mistake, the need to deploy energy is not about variable renewable energy sources versus thermal power plants.
PJM states face a significant deployment challenge for all forms of energy, ranging from local government denials of project permits, high interconnection costs, a lack of proactive transmission planning, market instability, and supply chain gaps. PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI), which arbitrarily allows 50 energy projects to jump into line ahead of projects that have been waiting for years, provides little assurance that these 50 projects will meet any better fate than the large amount of renewable generation and energy storage in the queue today. By lumping the interconnection cost of RRI projects into the existing interconnection queue, PJM could torpedo existing projects while setting up new projects to fail.
The states within PJM must make a concerted effort to reduce deployment challenges and bring more energy online, prioritizing projects that have exited the queue or that have advanced queue positions. PJM, for its part, should refocus away from RRI and onto other reforms–such as the Surplus Interconnect Service enhancement FERC also approved yesterday–that don’t pick winners and losers, lower interconnection costs, and provide a predictable environment for investment from all forms of energy.” – Evan Vaughan, Executive Director, MAREC Action
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MAREC Action (MAREC informally stands for “Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition”) is a 501.c4 non-profit dedicated to the growth of renewable energy technologies that improve our environment, diversify our electricity generation portfolio, and boost economic development in the PJM grid region. Our mission is to improve and enhance the opportunities for renewable energy development in ten jurisdictions in the PJM region in and around the Mid-Atlantic, specifically: Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. We provide education and expertise on the economic benefits and environmental sustainability of wind and solar energy; offer technical expertise and advice on operating and integrating wind and solar into the electrical power system; and promote fair policies, rules and regulations to expand the region’s electric transmission system to accommodate the growth of renewable energy usage.