The largest U.S. electric grid operator, located right here in Montgomery County, is asking regulators to reject Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan to prop up ailing coal and nuclear plants,

“I don’t know how this proposal could be implemented without a detrimental impact on the market,” Andrew Ott, who heads up (Lower Providence)-based PJM Interconnection LLC, told reporters by phone earlier this week. Perry’s proposal is “discriminatory” and inconsistent with federal law, according to a story by Bloomberg.

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In response to rising retirements in PJM and elsewhere, Perry had asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to change the way that wholesale power markets price electricity so that certain coal and nuclear generators can recover their costs. The plan has drawn fire from a wide coalition of natural gas producers, renewable energy generators, and public utilities, which argue that such an approach would distort markets, inhibit competition and raise consumer prices.

PJM, which spans more than a dozen states from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and serves more than 65 million people, stands to be shaken up the most by the plan, which aims to reward plants capable of storing 90 days of fuel supplies at their sites. Coal accounts for one-third of electricity generation in PJM, which retired more than 19 gigawatts of coal-fired power between 2011 and 2016.

The rule appears to target PJM specifically, Ott said. Nevertheless, “the PJM market is more diverse and reliable today than we’ve seen.”

To read the complete story click here. 

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