The power outage that darkened the White House and much of D.C. on April 7 began with the failure of a 230-kV lightning arrester at a Pepco substation.

PJM and utility officials said yesterday they are still investigating what caused the failure of a 230-kV transmission line that briefly cut power to the White House and much of the D.C. area Tuesday afternoon.

News briefs on companies in the PJM Interconnection this week, including AEP, NRG, Sunoco Pipeline, SMECO and Fishermen's Energy.

Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel is recommending that regulators set tougher energy-efficiency targets for the state’s utilities.

Exelon and Pepco told FERC last week that competitive and environmental concerns raised over their proposed merger are unfounded.

PJM may seek FERC approval for a plan to change the way demand response clears in capacity auctions despite stakeholders’ rejection of the plan.

Our summary of the issues scheduled for votes at the PJM MRC and MC on 11/21/13. Each item is listed by agenda number, description and projected time of discussion, followed by a summary of the issue and links to prior coverage.

Members approved PJM’s methodology for limiting capacity imports but soundly rejected the RTO’s proposal to change the way DR clears in the capacity market.

Chances for consensus appeared dim last week as PJM moved to implement caps on limited demand response over the objection of load serving entities. MD's PSC threatened a FERC challenge.

Amid complaints that the issue has not been fully vetted, members of the Capacity Senior Task Force are voting on four proposals to cap the volume of limited demand response that can clear PJM’s base capacity auction.