What have our friends been up to lately in the Ohio capacity charge rumpus?  Last time we checked in, AEP had scored the first victory and had moved their campaign to the AEP Ohio Answers website where Pablo the AEP Answer Man showcases some of the ugliest ties ever and drones on painfully in video after video that nobody watches.

You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

FirstEnergy has a new video where Diffident Donny "answers your questions" too.  Except, they're not your questions.  Donny's handlers just made up a bunch of questions that they wanted him to "answer."  FirstEnergy has provided no way for "you" to ask questions, so it appears that they have hired an invisible mime to "ask" Donny made-up questions via text message, or something.

It looks like they gave Donny some happy pills or a couple of stiff drinks to take the starch out of him this time and sat him down in a 1970s disco set to "answer your questions."  It almost works, until you watch his eyes.  Blinking and breaking eye contact reveal the nervousness they couldn't medicate away.

But the real curiosity here is:  Has FirstEnergy hired the Clown College to do their advertising?  Donny "answering your questions" bears a striking resemblance to Corky DeMarco "answering your questions" about the PATH Project two years ago.

Okay...  FirstEnergy is trying to keep up with AEP and making absolutely no sense.  Really nothing new in that!

Keep the comedy coming, fellas!

StopPATH WV, Inc., the Coalition for Reliable Power, Sugarloaf Conservancy, Inc. and Citizens Against Kemptown Electric Substation, Inc. (collectively "Consumer Organizations") filed joint Reply Comments on FERC's Promoting Transmission Investment Through Pricing Reform Notice of Inquiry on Friday.

You can download and read a copy of the organizations' comments here.

I got word from Sugarloaf Conservancy today that the public hearing/administrative meeting that they had originally been told would occur on June 20 at 10:00 has been temporarily cancelled.  The Maryland PSC says:

"As I explained in my e-mail below, a filing as listed on a 'draft' agenda does not indicate it will necessarily be addressed at that specific Administrative Meeting or through some other means.  In this case, your filing is being treated as a Formal Complaint and therefore removed from the draft agenda. Instead, on June 5, 2012, the Commission directed Potomac Edison to Satisfy or Answer the Complaint on or before July 6, 2012.  You personally were copied on that directive and should have received it in the mail.  You will be provided a copy of Potomac Edison's response.  After that response is received, the Commission will then determine its next course of action, if any."

If any?  Perhaps the MD PSC needs some additional information about how widespread this problem is.  If you've had too many estimated bills, see how to help spur the PSC into action below.

So if you were planning to attend the public hearing/meeting, hang onto that thought as we wait for Potomac Edison to manufacture some excuses for their questionable billing practices.

Meanwhile, keep those complaints coming if you have been experiencing Potomac Edison (or other FirstEnergy subsidiary's) Disappearing Meter Reader Scam where all your bills are "estimated" and charges are out-of-sync (along with all the other seemingly unrelated complaints about the utility that we have been receiving).  Contact Sugarloaf Conservancy here, or StopPATH WV here, or simply add them to the comments on this post.

We also encourage you to submit your concerns to the Maryland PSC.  You can send your comments via snail mail or try using the PSC's online form, but be sure to reference Mail Log#139432 in your comments.

As a follow-up to their recent comments on FERC's Transmission Incentives NOI, Edison Electric Institute pumps out some fear-mongering propaganda insisting that there is a great need to build new transmission.  EEI quotes a recent "report" from the American Society of Civil Engineers which slices and dices statistics based on a "business as usual" scenario in order to manufacture a future "investment gap" that will leave us all sitting in the dark in 2040.

"Business as usual," as defined by DOE's EIA, means that all variables will remain exactly the same as they are today.  This is completely unrealistic because change relentlessly marches on and ultimately cannot be denied.

Aside from that, the article incorrectly portrays transmission opposition this way:

"Power line planners are routinely delayed or blocked by communities that don't want the lines running through their towns because of aesthetic or environmental concerns," Otto J. Lynch, vice president of Power Line Systems, which develops and sells software for transmission lines, said.

There's that old "NIMBY" battle-axe again, one of the industry's favorite name-calling propaganda weapons against due process and landowner rights.  In reality, many transmission line projects, such as PATH, have been proven unneeded by opposition groups.  The ultimate abandonment of these unneeded projects saves consumers millions of dollars in the long run.

Sounds like some investor-owned utilities are wetting their pants over the thought of their transmission incentive profits going bye-bye.

The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission filed a complaint against FirstEnergy subsidiary West Penn Power last week related to their investigation of a 2009 incident in which a Pennsylvania woman was killed by a falling power line.

West Penn Power has repeatedly refused to provide internal investigation reports and information to the PUC for use in their own investigation.  Read PA PUC's complaint here.

The PUC is seeking to fine FirstEnergy $86,000, with additional fines of $1,000 per day accruing until FE coughs up the requested information.  They also ask that FE not be permitted to recover the fines from ratepayers.

FE is saying the same stupid stuff they always say... we're evaluating the complaint and will respond appropriately or some such nonsense.

The PUC complaint is an entirely separate matter from the lawsuit filed by the family of the woman killed by the falling power line.

Read the letter from the family's attorney to the PUC that details the improper training on splices Allegheny linemen received.  The letter states:  "Allegheny Power's witnesses continue to confirm the company's failure to follow the manufacturer's instructions and its own internal standards for splice installation, and there is obviously a grave concern for the safety of those living in Allegheny Power's service area because of its practices."

Allegheny Power, now FirstEnergy, just doesn't care how many of their power lines fail, fall and electrocute people. It's all about protecting themselves legally, who cares about public safety?  This is why corporations should never be considered "people."  People could never behave in such a vile fashion.

The Maryland Public Service Commission will hear the complaint of Sugarloaf Conservancy on June 20 at 10:00 a.m.  The item has been moved to the end of the agenda because the PSC suspects that they may have a full house on this matter, so expect to be there for a while.

The complaint details FirstEnergy subsidiary Potomac Edison's lack of performance reading residential electric meters as required by law.  The FirstEnergy Disappearing Meter Reader Scam has been going on since just after the Allegheny Energy/FirstEnergy merger last year.

You are welcome and encouraged to attend the hearing.  Directions to the PSC can be found here.  If you prefer not to deal with traffic and parking hassles in Baltimore, you can hitch a ride on Sugarloaf Conservancy's bus from Frederick County.  Cost for the bus is $20.  Contact Sugarloaf Conservancy to reserve your seat.

Potomac Edison is caught like a rat in a trap!  Cue the dissembling -- Potomac Edison is all of a sudden pretending that there is a great meter reader shortage and they're hiring.  Don't get too excited if you're looking for a job though... it only pays $12.31 an hour.  Who can support a family on that pittance?  No wonder they have a shortage of meter readers.  Perhaps they're desperate for help because they don't pay a living wage, ya think?  Staffing shortage is no excuse for violating Maryland law by not reading meters as required.

Todd, Todd, Todd... it's "unfortunate timing" that you're still completely full of crap!  The only thing that "comes out in the end" are the fabrications Todd continually spins.  I think Todd should get in his car and start reading meters instead of sitting uselessly around the office and making crap up.  He can start here, my meter hasn't been read in over 6 months.

According to PJM, its RPM capacity market is supposed to:

"...create long-term price signals to attract needed investments in reliability in the PJM region.

... stimulate investment both in maintaining existing generation and in encouraging the development of new sources of capacity – resources that include not just generating plants, but demand response and transmission facilities."

So, what is "capacity?"  Capacity is the amount of electricity a generator is capable of producing if it ran constantly.  However, generators don't run constantly, especially plants used only during peak demand.  But PJM must assure that enough capacity is available to meet that peak demand, therefore suppliers must purchase capacity, not just the electric power they may happen to use.  Capacity payments compensate generators for making capacity available, whether it ever actually produces a product that it gets paid for, or not.  A generator cannot afford to remain ready to dispatch if it never does, and never sells any product to produce an income. 

RPM auction prices are not "the cost of electricity," they just a small part of your total electric bill.  The larger part is the cost of the generation itself.  Different fuels (or no fuel in the case of renewables) and ways to produce electricity will produce different generation prices.  Coal is now more expensive than gas, therefore the cost of electricity produced from coal will be more expensive than electricity produced from gas, although both are receiving capacity payments to be available all the time.

PJM's markets are supposed to balance all this to ensure reliability -- an adequate supply of electricity at all times -- at the lowest possible cost.

However, it didn't quite work for New Jersey and Maryland, two states that pay some of the highest prices in the region because they are electricity importers.  Capacity prices were much higher than the rest of the region in those two states because they lacked adequate generation resources.  PJM's answer to that was to build billions of dollars of new transmission to import generation with cheaper capacity prices into those states.  New Jersey and Maryland waited years for PJM's capacity market to stimulate "development of new sources of capacity," but it never happened.  Therefore, New Jersey and Maryland decided to take matters into their own hands to stimulate "the development of new sources of capacity" in their own states.  Regulators in these states believe that local gas-fired generation will be a cheaper source of electricity for their consumers in the long run.  They wanted to be released from being held hostage by an ever-shrinking pool of dirty generators in western PJM and take control of their own electricity markets.

New Jersey implemented their LCAPP.

Maryland implemented their RFP process.

Both programs successfully stimulated proposals for new generation, which would mean that incumbent generators at the exporting end of all those new transmission lines would now have real competition.  The new generation proposals use currently low-priced gas for fuel.  The incumbents rely heavily on coal and some more expensive nukes, therefore their generation may no longer be economic to import to Maryland and New Jersey.  The incumbents have been screaming bloody murder and going to great lengths to try to halt Maryland and New Jersey's programs through the legal process.  PJM, being the cartel of incumbent generators that it is, sided with its most powerful members and joined in the state utility regulator beat down at FERC and in the courts.

In addition to the fuel cost disparity, PJM and the incumbent generators have another problem on their hands -- the cost of those new transmission lines needed to import their product to New Jersey and Maryland.  While the cost of a new generator will be paid for by those who use its electricity in New Jersey and Maryland, the cost of building new transmission lines is paid for by ALL electric consumers in PJM.  A consumer's share is dependent on their share of regional peak load, therefore consumers in areas far from these new transmission lines will end up paying a higher percentage of cost than those who are receiving the lower electricity price benefits that the transmission line supposedly provides. So, while clueless bloggers hyperventilate over the "subsidies" ratepayers will pay for New Jersey's new generation, they fail to consider the cost of the alternative to building new generation -- generation imports via new transmission lines that will be paid for by others who receive no benefit and end up costing consumers much more than "subsidized" new generation in the long run.

Maryland's project, and several of New Jersey's projects, cleared PJM's capacity auction last month, which was the hurdle they needed to overcome to get started.  The incumbent generators are completely beside themselves with worry that the captive market for their product is evaporating so quickly (never mind that decreased demand and fuel economics were already doing a nice job on their own).  Now the incumbent generators and their investors are on the war path to distort media understanding of a very complicated subject. More legal wrangling is absolutely guaranteed, along with some propaganda from the incumbent generators' front group, The Compete Coalition.

New Jersey regulators do a nice job of defending their LCAPP program in the clueless blog, however the blogger just doesn't understand the entire concept therefore, he doesn't understand them and remains a faithful lapdog for incumbent generators and their spinmeisters who want to throttle real competition in electric generation.