Exelon has filed a complaint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking it to change when PJM Interconnection buys capacity. Under the request, PJM would stop holding its base capacity auctions three years before each delivery year. It would hold them about two months before delivery instead. The utility holding company announced the complaint on Nov. 4. It asked the commission to rule by Jan. 31.

Energy Choice Matters lists the case as Docket EL27-11. In the complaint, Exelon says PJM's three-year-forward mechanism "is no longer just and reasonable." That is the legal standard FERC applies when it decides whether to order a change to a market rule. Exelon's own release calls the request a "significant, targeted and surgical step" toward broader reform of PJM's capacity market.

What Exelon Is Asking For

PJM now runs its Base Residual Auction (BRA) about three years ahead of the delivery year it covers, Utility Dive reported. Exelon proposes a "prompt" schedule instead, with each auction held two months before its delivery year. The change would start with the 2030/31 delivery year.

Energy Choice Matters quotes the complaint on the practical effect. The change would "functionally push out the date of the BRA for the 2030/31 Delivery Year, currently scheduled for May 2027, to approximately March 2030." Exelon argues in the complaint that this would keep customers from being exposed to what it calls the "uncapped surge in capacity prices expected this coming spring."

Exelon's release says a prompt schedule would move procurement decisions closer to the delivery period. It also says the change would bring PJM in line with other capacity markets that already use prompt auctions.

What It Would Not Change

The complaint does not try to stop the auction PJM already has scheduled. According to Energy Choice Matters, Exelon says its request will not disrupt the BRA for the 2029/2030 delivery year, which is set for December 2026. It also says the request will not disrupt any Reliability Backstop Procurement auction. Utility Dive described the same sequence. PJM would still hold the December auction for 2029/30, and the next base auction would come in early 2030.

Exelon also does not present the auction change as a full answer to affordability. Its release says a prompt auction alone will not solve the problem and that PJM needs more generation.

Why the Timing Matters to Exelon

Exelon's utilities serve about 10.7 million customers in PJM, Utility Dive reported. In the release, Colette Honorable, Exelon's executive vice president and chief legal officer, said customers cannot afford to wait for a full package of market changes. That is why the company filed a narrow complaint now instead of waiting for a broader redesign.

The Jan. 31 deadline Exelon asked for is tied to PJM's auction calendar. Utility Dive reported that Jan. 31 is the last day before PJM releases the planning parameters for the 2030/31 base auction, which is currently scheduled for May. Planning parameters include the forecasts and other inputs that set up an auction.

The Data Center Connection

The complaint is about auction timing, not data centers directly. But it points to a source of forecasting uncertainty. According to Energy Choice Matters, Exelon cites the volatile development schedules of large loads as part of its case against buying capacity three years ahead.

The logic is that an auction held three years out has to rest on demand forecasts made three years out. If large new loads arrive faster, slower, or in a different form than developers projected, those forecasts can miss. Buying capacity two months before delivery would rely on a much nearer-term view of demand. The sources reviewed for this article do not include Exelon's own estimate of how much a prompt auction would change costs, and DataCenterFeed has not estimated one.

For data center developers, the question is mostly indirect. Large-load customers are not the party asking for the change, and the complaint does not propose new rules for them. Their growth is one of the forecasting problems Exelon cites in arguing that the current schedule no longer works.

PJM's Response and the Broader Reform Effort

PJM has not yet answered the complaint in substance. PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields told Utility Dive that the grid operator is reviewing the filing and will reply at "the appropriate time."

The complaint arrives while PJM runs its own review of market design. Utility Dive reported that PJM's Power Reliability Through Market Design initiative has drawn more than 30 papers from stakeholders. Exelon's release describes its request as a targeted step made while regional stakeholders continue to chart a path toward broader market reforms.

A Separate Capacity Complaint in MISO

Utility Dive reported Exelon's filing alongside a separate FERC complaint about capacity markets in the neighboring Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). Invenergy Transmission filed that complaint on Nov. 4. Invenergy argues that MISO's rules bar merchant high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines from receiving capacity payments.

The complaint centers on Invenergy's Grain Belt Express project. Utility Dive describes it as a 5 GW, 600 kV line running about 800 miles from Kansas to Indiana, at a cost of roughly $11 billion. Invenergy says the line could provide more than 1,800 MW of accredited capacity, according to Utility Dive. The MISO complaint is not connected to the Exelon case.

A Note on the Filing Date

Exelon's release is dated Nov. 4, 2026 and says the company "today filed" the complaint. Utility Dive's Nov. 5 article refers to a Tuesday filing, which would be Nov. 3. The sources differ, and this article uses the Nov. 4 date from Exelon's release for the announcement.

What Happens Next

The next on-the-record steps are set by PJM's calendar and the deadline Exelon requested:

  • Nov. 13: PJM will hold a workshop to discuss the more than 30 papers submitted to its Power Reliability Through Market Design initiative, Utility Dive reported.
  • PJM's reply: PJM says it will respond to the complaint at "the appropriate time." No date was given.
  • December 2026: The BRA for the 2029/30 delivery year is still scheduled. Exelon says its complaint would not disrupt it.
  • Jan. 31: This is the date by which Exelon asked FERC to rule. It is the last day before PJM releases planning parameters for the 2030/31 base auction.
  • May 2027: This is the current date of the 2030/31 BRA. If FERC grants the complaint, Exelon says that auction would move to approximately March 2030.

FERC has not acted on the complaint. The commission could grant it, deny it, or set it for further proceedings, and none of the sources reviewed for this article report a schedule for that decision beyond the Jan. 31 date Exelon requested.

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