Panda Power built three power plants earlier in this decade, investing billions of dollars based on projections from the state’s grid manager that Texas desperately needed more generation to meet growing electricity demand. But those projections turned out to be wildly wrong — Texas, in fact, had plenty of power — and Panda ended up losing billions of dollars and putting one of the plants into bankruptcy, unable to sell electricity at prices sufficient to cover debts.
The Dallas company is now in court, alleging that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas intentionally manipulated the projections to encourage new power plant construction and relieve the political pressure that was building on the grid manager to increase generation in the state. The case has implications that reach beyond whether Panda gets its money back to issues as profound as the reliability of power grid, the integrity of the wholesale electricity market and the accountability of an organization whose decisions affect thousands of businesses, millions of people and billions of dollars.
The Texas Supreme Court is considering whether ERCOT, a private, nonprofit corporation, is entitled to sovereign immunity, a well-established legal principle that protects governments and their agencies from lawsuits. The high court’s decision, expected later this year, could determine whether electricity buyers and sellers can hold the grid manager responsible for pricing errors, mistake-ridden forecasts or life and death consequences of power outages.

PJM Interconnection why do you filter the comments on your page, why do you not allow the public to share comments or post concerns??? Don't appreciate it when the public calls you out on your lies??? After our community hearing with the Maryland Public Service Commission I am back into full fledged pissed off mama bear mode, and I have ZERO plans of backing down. The entire project is unfounded, unjust, unnecessary and provides no benefit to anyone but YOU and your own financial gain. It will be a cold day in hell before I willingly allow you to destroy my community, our homes, property or my childrens back yard.
*EDITED*, I never expected all the shares, so I wanted to write a bit more of an explanation for those who aren't aware of that's going on.
PLEASE SHARE AND TAG TO SPREAD MORE AWARENESS!!!!!
I'm reaching out to everyone single person I can and through every single avenue there is. Crazy long story short for those who have no idea what's going on. A huge multi million dollar electric company PJM Interconnection has plans to build a new high tension powerline in northern Harford county MD, Washington county MD and Franklin county PA. This is a powerline that serves no purpose, and does nothing to benefit the general public, only the big power companies will reap the benefits. To make matters worse, there are existing underutilized towers that could solve the problem, without having to build a new transmission line. Currently they have plans to enforce eminent domain (steal our land) to build this line, and plan to disrupt homes, farms, orchards and small businesses. They have intentionally chosen farms in agricultural preserve because the land is "cheaper", and hold "less value", so therefore more cost efficient for them to steal. Unfortunately if the state allows this to happen, it will set a precedent that huge money hungry corporations can steal land from whomever they chose for their own financial gain. Does this directly impact you now ?? Maybe not, but I certainly never thought I'd be facing this issue, but here I am. Please Help spread the word. Share share share and share again!! They currently plan to go directly through my husbands great grandparents farm that we were blessed to have been able to build our dream home on, the land that we thought would allow our 3 small sons to safely grow, learn, play and explore. This project, if approved is going to ruin those hopes and dreams. So please, help make this issue known, and spread the word.

Welcome to our Mason-Dixon Community. A Community at risk due to a broken PJM process.

PJM holds the view, that agricultural land is “undeveloped land” ready and waiting for their transmission projects. PJM fails to consider or care about the negative impacts their transmission projects have on our local economy, local agricultural businesses, rural pastoral viewsheds or the rural Community in general. PJM fails to recognize that agriculture is an intended land use designation. Harford County retains approximately 75,000 acres, or 27%, of the County’s land area dedicated to farming. Agricultural land is in decline and both MD & PA have made preserving agricultural land a priority. We can’t make more farmland.

On November 6, 2017 members of this Mason-Dixon Community, along with elected and appointed officials from both MD & PA met with PJM staff, Paul McGlynn (PJM System Planning), Matthew LaRocque (Manager Regulatory Affairs for MD, VA & NC), and Darlene Phillips (PJM State and Member Services) as a result of a written request to PJM’s Board Chairman. The purpose of this meeting was to resolve the need for any new “greenfield” transmission projects in our Community.

What was and is still disturbing is the failure of PJM and their staff to acknowledge that, as citizens, we know what is best for our Mason-Dixon Community. On November 6, 2017, those PJM staff chose to ignore the invitation by Councilman Chad Shrodes to take a five-minute drive to see the underutilized transmission line, the Otter Creek-Conastone line near Shaw’s Orchard in Norrisville. In fact, the Otter Creek-Conastone line parallels and is located within sight of the proposed Transource IEC-East line almost the entire proposed pathway. To validate this one only has to take a drive.

In addition, we were told that “some states have requirements” to utilize existing brownfields vs. building new greenfield transmission. And that “we are all working with the states to work within and respect the state’s regulations”. And that (the project) “was submitted based on state policy”. If those statements were true, PJM wouldn’t have approved Transource to build an unnecessary, redundant IEC-East transmission line in a Community already beset with existing underutilized transmission lines. Something that is very clear to the members of our Community. All one has to do is take a drive.

We expressed concern to PJM staff that the Benefit/Cost analysis only included costs of siting, costs of ROW’s, substation and equipment costs – transaction and infrastructure costs only, costs specific to building the project. A member of the York County Planning Commission told PJM staff, “those are transaction and infrastructure costs only, project costs specifically related to building the project. You are not looking at the farm economy for local farms. Where is the B/C for the Community? We need to come up with this impact.” There was just silence from the PJM staff present. Matter of fact, our Community still has yet to receive an answer from PJM. So, PJM what is the negative impact to our Community? Are you ever going to answer?

Our Mason-Dixon Community urges the Commission to provide that answer to PJM. Tell PJM that their project, the Transource IEC Project is denied. Tell PJM that existing underutilized transmission infrastructure is the best solution for “Market Efficiency” and/or “emerging reliability issues”. Tell PJM that the next time they propose a problem and search for solutions that they need to just take a drive.

The recommendation by the reviewing State Agencies to deny a transmission project is a
rarity and is not made lightly, or without significant analysis and consideration. Yet, this project contradicts Maryland’s well-established statutory planning and preservation priorities. While, the work of PJM is vital to assure the reliability of the electricity grid that serves Maryland, what is most beneficial for the applicant, or PJM and its stakeholders, is not always what is in the public interest of the State and its residents. This discretionary PJM-driven market efficiency project, and the process used to approve it, demonstrates this divergence. As described by the Direct Testimony of the Secretary of Agriculture, Joseph Bartenfelder, and the Executive Director of MALPF, Michelle Cable, Maryland’s agriculture industry is vital to Maryland as its single largest industry after the federal government, which is why Maryland has prioritized preserving farmland and ensuring the integrity of MALPF easements. Projects that diminish the State’s efforts and devalue its investments to preserve this finite resource should not be approved when existing infrastructure is available. PJM and transmission developers should reasonably be expected to incorporate Maryland’s stated policies and statutes into their project development and approval processes.

The MMU recommends the creation of a mechanism to permit a direct comparison, or competition, between transmission and generation alternatives, including which alternative is less costly and who bears the risks associated with each alternative.

So how can PJM propose a project that doesn’t really save any money, hurts Pennsylvania ratepayers so badly, and costs nearly $500 million to build? 
 
The answer can be found at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”), the entity charged with regulating PJM.  FERC allowed PJM to implement a tiered system, with one set of rules for smaller projects, and one for larger projects.  Delineated by voltage, the lower tier rules allow PJM to completely ignore all zones that see increases, while the higher tier rules consider the net change to system production cost.  Transource realized that this created a loophole.  They designed the IEC to run at the highest voltage possible in the lower tier, but carry an astonishing 24 conductors.  Though run at only 230kv, the IEC has so many conductors it would have more power capacity than most 500kv lines that form the backbone of the grid.  One expert witness said it carried more power than any 230kV line he had ever seen.  Testimony showed that if the line were evaluated as a higher tier project, it probably would never have been proposed.

And if that isn’t gaming the system, then consider this: when PJM asked FERC to make the changes in the assumptions for future planned generation – the changes that affected the benefits last week – they didn’t provide much analysis.  In fact, they only gave FERC one table of examples.  Those examples showed what would happen to eight small projects with and without the proposed changes.  In all eight examples, the new rules reduced and usually eliminated the need for those projects by showing the projects no benefit.  PJM clearly was trying to tell FERC that they had historically been over-estimating the benefits of projects, and that the proposed rules would more accurately reflect lower benefits and result in fewer unnecessary projects.  But just days after the rules were changed, the IEC showed a $250M swing the other direction.  Bait and switch anyone?  You can almost hear the laughter in the PJM hallways.

PJM is a cabal of utilities interested in one objective: making money.  They have manipulated the rules to allow the proposal of a project that will lose hundreds of millions of dollars, destroy preserved farmland, and raise rates for Pennsylvania residents, all while ignoring existing alternatives.  If nothing else, this process has convinced any objective onlooker that PJM needs tighter regulation.  FERC has been too trusting, and the effects are clear.