Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC) sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting information on the increasing retirements of power plants across the country and the implications for America’s electric grid reliability. 

KEY LETTER EXCERPT: 

“Regulatory, policy, and environmental pressures on fossil-based generation resources that provide 60 percent of the nation’s electricity further threaten the reliability and flexibility of the grid. Because of these pressures, coupled with projections of electric demand growth, we are concerned about the reliability of the bulk-power system and the actions the Commission is taking or considering taking to ensure that it fulfills its mission to ‘[a]ssist consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts.’” 

BACKGROUND: 

• Concerns are mounting regarding the forced retirement of baseload power sources—like natural gas and coal—as a result of President Biden’s rush-to-green energy agenda. 
• At FERC’s recent annual reliability technical conference, Commissioner Danly argued that retirements are “not orderly” and are taking place before the capacity, energy, and essential reliability services they provide are able to be replaced. 
• At the conference, multiple stakeholders expressed concern that retirements are happening too quickly and that resources promoting reliability cannot be retained by any one single entity.  
• Regulatory, policy, and environmental pressures implemented on fossil-based generation resources—which provide 60 percent of the nation’s electricity—further threaten the reliability and flexibility of the grid. 
• Given these retirements, as well as the intermittent nature of newer resources, like wind and solar, America's grid reliability will continue to be strained, especially as demand for these resources grows, further threatening reliability.  

Chairs Rodgers and Duncan asked Chairman Willie Phillips and the FERC Commissioners to respond to the following questions by January 16, 2024: 

1. Are changes to the costs that electric generation resources can or should offer in capacity markets needed to ensure revenue sufficiency, especially for the resources that provide greater shares of energy and essential reliability services? 
2. Is the Commission considering recommending changes to planning parameters, such as changes to reserve margins and the “one day in ten” standard, to ensure both resource adequacy and energy adequacy? 
3. Should intermittent resources be required to firm or true up their capacity to compensate for their lower capacity ratings and intermittency? 
4. Are current retirements orderly? Should retirement process timelines more closely align with timelines for entry in the capacity market? Would this better ensure that retirements do not create resource adequacy shortfalls and that new resources can provide sufficient replacement capacity and essential reliability services? 
5. Procuring capacity without consideration of a resource’s energy availability and the essential reliability services it can provide may contribute to current issues on the grid. Should planning processes and capacity markets be required to consider the ability of electric generators to provide essential reliability services and/or operating reserves? 
6. Should the Commission explore additional markets, such as forward-looking markets like capacity markets, that procure essential reliability services on a forward basis? 
7. What actions is the Commission considering taking under its jurisdiction over retirement planning expressed by Commissioner Clements? 
8. Are generators who are planning to retire required to enter a reliability must run agreement extended by an RTO/ISO? If not, who has, or should have, authority to retain resources planning to retire if it is determined that the resource is needed for resource adequacy? 
9. Do current retirement study processes properly consider energy adequacy, essential reliability services, and/or fuel security?  
10. Is the Commission exploring modifications to retirement planning and studies with RTOs/ISOs, NERC, states, and others to develop actionable and meaningful solutions to prevent further retirement of reliable generation? 
11. Are new reliability standards or changes to existing reliability standards needed to address retirements, retirement studies, and resources that replace retiring generators? 

CLICK HERE to read the letter.