Generation owners and their investors are placing big bets (often in the hundreds of millions of dollars) in Capacity Markets in ISO-NE, PJM, NYISO and MISO. As Mark Christie, FERC Commissioner, put it in March, 2023: “Capacity Markets are characterized by such hopeless complexity and impenetrable opacity that they represent the example of a game that only insiders can play and win.”
ESAI Power’s Capacity market experts were consultants during the formation of the ISO New England Forward Capacity Market, the New York Capacity Market, and the PJM Capacity Markets over 20 years ago. ESAI’s involvement in these early consulting projects prompted ESAI to launch a quarterly publication called Capacity Watch in 2003.
Capacity Watch covers Capacity market rules and auction structure in ISO-NE, PJM, NYISO and MISO. Over the past 20-plus years, we have helped inform our subscription clients with ongoing analysis of the Capacity markets. This consulting knowledge, plus our ongoing primary research, positions ESAI analysts as the foremost Capacity Market experts.
We publish Capacity Watch and the Generation Asset Monitor to assess Capacity market rule changes, supply and demand, interconnection queues, and forecast upcoming fossil retirements. While many see “hopeless complexity,” ESAI Power’s Capacity experts can see through the noise and into trends to provide reliable input for generation owner and investor capacity auction bidding strategies and long-term risk management.
ESAI Power’s vision is to: ”advance transparency, competitiveness, efficiency, and transformation in the power markets” and we support clients by providing insights and, as much as possible, transparency for our subscribers.
Below, please find our RTO-specific auction pages to view upcoming capacity auctions for the PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE and MISO forward capacity markets.
Link to: PJM Capacity Auction Calendar
PJM Capacity Auction Calendar
PJM’s capacity market is called the Reliability Pricing Model, ensures long-term grid reliability by securing the appropriate amount of power supply resources needed to meet predicted energy demand in the future. PJM Capacity Auctions include both Incremental Auctions (IA) and Base Residual Auctions (BRA). Here is a calendar of upcoming PJM capacity auctions.
Link to: NYISO Capacity Auctions Calendar
NYISO Capacity Auction Calendar
The New York Installed Capacity (ICAP) market serves to maintain reliability of the bulk power system by procuring sufficient resource capability to meet expected maximum energy needs plus an Installed Reserve Margin (IRM). Here is a calendar of upcoming and past energy auctions for the NYISO capacity market.
Link to: ISO-NE Capacity Market Auctions Calendar
ISO-NE Forward Capacity Market Auctions Calendar
The Forward Capacity Market (FCM) ensures that the New England power system will have sufficient resources to meet the future demand for electricity. Forward Capacity Auctions (FCAs) are held annually, three years in advance of the operating period. Resources compete in the auctions to obtain a commitment to supply capacity in exchange for a market-priced capacity payment.
Link to: MISO Capacity Auction Calendar
MISO Capacity Auction Calendar
MISO’s annual capacity auction, the Planning Resource Auction (PRA), demonstrates sufficient resources and allows market participants to sell capacity, via an auction, to other market participants who may expect a shortfall. MISO sets the capacity requirements in its region for each season of the June 1 to May 31 time period.
About ESAI Power
ESAI Power is a market research and consulting firm that delivers focused analysis of the wholesale power markets in the PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE and MISO. Since 2001, ESAI has been providing market-focused research product content and custom consulting services for power market participants including investors, developers, lenders, as well as generation owners, power traders, utilities & retail electricity suppliers, regulators & RTOs and large corporate energy buyers.