Brattle Experts Present Framework for Mitigating RMR Agreements Through Advance Deactivation Planning

These slides, “Designing Solicitations to Mitigate RMR Agreements,” were presented to PJM’s Deactivation Enhancements Senior Task Force. Brattle Senior Consultant Andrew Levitt, Principal Hannes Pfeifenberger, and Energy Associate Aniruddh Mohan prepared the presentation on behalf of Sierra Club et al.

The presentation examines how advanced deactivation planning and competitive replacement solicitations can help mitigate or avoid costly, last-minute Reliability Must Run (RMR) agreements while supporting reliability, affordability, and efficient resource transition planning.

Main takeaways include:

• Generator retirements that create significant reliability impacts require major infrastructure solutions, which take years to plan for
• Earlier deactivation planning reduces or eliminates reliance on cost-of-service-based RMR arrangements, can expand the set of viable replacement options, and improve affordability of outcomes
• Competitive replacement solicitations can allow transmission, generation, storage, and other fast-deploying resources to compete to address identified reliability needs at lower cost
• The solicitation process (state-led or PJM-led) can run in parallel with reliability evaluation and accelerated interconnection processes

A structured handoff from a retiring resource to a replacement solution can preserve reliability while reducing RMR duration, cost, and operational reliance on legacy units.