Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first) 
     The new rules from the Trump regulators turned out not to be much of a factor. This is partly because the steep drop in price mitigated some of the advantages of the participants. In addition, many bidders were granted exemptions. The result of all this was disastrous for coal power plants. Katie Bays is an analyst at FiscalNote Markets. She wrote in a research note, “Coal was far and away the biggest loser in the auction.”
     Exelon serves the Chicago area. The price was sixty-eight dollars and ninety-six cents compared to one hundred ninety-five dollars and fifty-five cents from the last auction. The price in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey region fell to ninety-seven dollars and eighty-six cents from one hundred sixty-five dollars and seventy-three cents. In all, one hundred forty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-seven megawatts cleared the auction. This represents a reserve margin of twenty one percent.
     Nuclear power plants did manage to win more contracts in the auction than in previous years. They cleared an additional four thousand five hundred megawatts from the prior auction in 2018, Wind and solar added about one thousand three hundred megawatts and natural gas added three thousand four hundred megawatts. On the other hand, coal fell by about eight thousand two hundred megawatts.
     Blackouts triggered by the extreme weather in Texas and California over the past year have fueled a debate over whether other regions should institute capacity systems similar to the one currently used by PJM. The market pays generators to be on standby in case extra power is needed. This practice has long been a source of controversy. It does make the grid more reliable but it also drivers up costs for consumers. Around Chicago, these charges totaled more than one billion seven hundred million dollars per year. This accounted for twenty percent of customers billing.
     The new pricing rules imposed by federal regulators under the Trump administration triggered contentious debate between power providers, PJM and federal regulators. The auction was delayed by two years because to the confusion. The new pricing system may be short lived. The new Biden administration is moving to review and change the rules in time for the next PJM auction in December.
     Dominion Energy Inc. is one of the biggest utility owners in the U.S. They recently pulled out of the capacity market because of the new rules. The company has a goal to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. They said that the new PJM format will make renewables more expensive than they would be if clean energy were delivered through alternative markets.
     Illinois, New Jersey and Maryland have also threatened to withdraw from the capacity market unless the new price floor is eliminated. PJM has already launched a process to do just that. Lazerwitz said that “After all that fighting, it had basically no impact.” Hopefully, new regulations from the Biden administration will remedy some of these problems.