The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is due to receive comments on the topics discussed during a recent technical conference on resource adequacy in the evolving power sector. The conference examined the role of the eastern regional grid operators’ centralized capacity markets as state policies continue to increasingly affect resource entry and exit decisions. The discussion included the implications of retaining the expanded minimum offer price rule, or expanded MOPR, in PJM Interconnection LLC’s capacity market, as well as prospective alternatives to replace the rule. The commission also seeks comments on the extent to which state actions to support specific resource types have changed since the establishment of PJM’s resource adequacy construct. AD21-10-000

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will issue its Monthly Energy Review, providing data on energy production, consumption, prices and trade. Natural gas consumption is expected to decrease in 2021 and 2022, following the decline in 2020 due to the economic slowdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and lower heating demand amid milder temperatures, according to the agency’s latest short-term outlook. Natural gas prices in the last two years were historically low, making the fuel more competitive with coal for power generation. With higher forecast natural gas prices and more renewable energy expected to come online in 2021 and 2022, the agency expects more electricity generation from coal and renewables and less from natural gas.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will examine energy development on federal lands, focusing on the current status of the Department of the Interior’s onshore oil and gas leasing program. In January, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the agency to pause new oil and gas leasing pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of federal permitting and leasing practices.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is due to receive comments on issues and alternatives to be considered in its environmental review regarding the site characterization and assessment activities associated with issuing wind energy leases in the New York Bight area. The review will also consider project easements associated with each potential lease issued, and grants for subsea cable corridors in the New York Bight. In March, the agency identified a new priority Wind Energy Area of nearly 800,000 acres in the New York Bight, an area of shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast. The Biden administration has established a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will conduct a technical conference to initiate a dialog on how to prepare for an increasingly electrified future. The conference will engage multiple panels to consider a wide range of issues which include: the future and current state of electrification in the U.S; the need for additional transmission and generation infrastructure with growing electrification; the ability of newly electrified sources of energy demand, such as electric vehicles and smart thermostats to provide grid services and enhance reliability; and the role of state-federal coordination as electrification advances. AD21-12-000