Dispute over PJM-Con Edison agreements continues; PSE&G, BPU protest new offer

摘要

An attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over interstate power flows has triggered another round of objections pitting a New Jersey utility and regulators against a New York utility and regulators, while litigation lingers in federal court. The PJM Interconnection in April proposed two new agreements for long-term service between PJM and Consolidated Edison of New York to replace a pair of contracts dating back to the 1970s that will expire in 2012. The new agreements, proposed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, would continue the arrangement of wheeling 1,000 MW from New York southward to the Public Service Electric and Gas system in New Jersey while moving equal amounts of power eastward from PSE&G into New York City. Con Ed liked the new plan (Docket No. ER08-858) and said it would resolve the ongoing litigation. PSE&G and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities objected to it. Each side in the dispute has raised the prospect of reliability problems if FERC does not take its arguments into account, and each has claimed to face unjust costs. PSE&G also has attacked the new arrangements as providing preferential treatment to Con Ed and illegitimate