FERC Denies AEP's Request For Waiver Of PJM's Capacity Performance Construct

On January 29, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") denied American Electric Power Service Corporation's ("AEP") request for a limited waiver of provisions of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. ("PJM") Open Access Transmission Tariff ("Tariff") and the Reliability Assurance Agreement ("RAA") that impose capacity performance non-performance charges ("CPNP Charges") on fixed resource requirement ("FRR") entities beginning in the 2019/2020 delivery year. AEP's waiver request stemmed from a June 9, 2015 order (see June 17, 2015 edition of the WER) in which FERC approved PJM's capacity performance construct ("CP Construct") that requires PJM load-serving entities to decide by March 7, 2016 whether to participate in PJM's Reliability Pricing Model ("RPM") capacity auction or alternatively to elect to be an FRR entity. Under the CP Construct, should AEP elect to be an FRR entity, it will be subject to (i) enhanced capacity performance rules including a