Updated With Dynegy Statement

Public Citizen, Inc. filed a section 206 complaint at FERC against MISO alleging that the, "highly excessive, unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory rate increases for MISO Local Resource Zone 4 ('Zone 4') that are scheduled to take effect on June 2, 2015, may be the result of illegal manipulation and gaming of the auction bidding process, specifically capacity withholding, contrary to Section 222 of the FPA."

Public Citizen alleged that, "Dynegy, more than any other company in Zone 4, was in the best position to execute a capacity withholding scheme for the purpose of driving Zone 4 auction prices up. And we knew that MISO recognized Dynegy's Zone 4 market power to the point that MISO proposed mitigating Dynegy's market power by merging Zones 4 and 5—a proposal that failed after Dynegy opposed it."

"Dynegy, with thousands of newly-acquired baseload generation units, had financial incentive to intentionally withhold capacity—either by refusing to offer them for bid, or offering them at prices so high they knew they had a low likelihood of clearing—to drive the auction price up, thereby providing increased revenue to its cleared generation units. As has been seen with increasing regularity in ISO and RTO clearing auctions, power companies like Dynegy make more money by creating shortages by selling or committing less power," Public Citizen alleged

"Roughly 3,800 MW of Dynegy's Zone 4 generation did not clear the auction. Public Citizen believes that the available evidence suggests Dynegy may have engaged in intentional capacity withholding to drive auction prices from $16.75 to $150.00," Public Citizen alleged

See the complaint for more

Dynegy offered the following statement:

“Dynegy follows and respects all the rules, tariffs, and obligations in the markets and areas where we operate. Dynegy offered all of its megawatts into the MISO auction with no physical or economic withholding in accordance with MISO tariffs and as approved by the Independent Market Monitor. MISO’s Independent Market Monitor has publicly stated that 'the auction results are reliable and participants’ behavior was in line with all tariff rules and procedures.'”