If the proposed rules are adopted, they could provide
significant economic support to coal and nuclear generation in
organized markets.
Invoking rarely used statutory authority, on September 29, US
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry directed the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) to undertake a rulemaking to enable
generation assets in regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and
independent systems operators (ISOs) to receive payments for
reliability and resiliency benefits that the US Department of
Energy (DOE) views as uncompensated under current market rules.
The proposed rules, if adopted, ultimately could provide
significant economic support to coal and nuclear generation in
organized markets by allowing cost-based recovery, separating these
resources from the normal market forces in certain regions that
recently have exerted significant downward pressure on rates paid
to such baseload generators.
