After several months of debate, stakeholders gave a final endorsement of PJM’s short-term proposal to resolve five-minute dispatch and pricing issues at Thursday’s Markets and Reliability and Members committee meetings.

The MRC endorsed the proposed solution and corresponding language revisions in a unanimous sector-weighted vote, with 69 members voting in favor — an outcome so unusual that PJM officials paused the meeting to double-check the results. In an acclamation vote held during the MC, three members voted against the PJM solution.

PJM’s proposed short-term fixes align the locational price calculator (LPC) to use the reference real-time security-constrained economic dispatch (RT SCED) case for the same target time. The LPC would calculate prices for the interval from 11:55 a.m. to 12 p.m. using the RT SCED solution for a 12 p.m. target time.

Resource offers, parameters and ancillary service assignments would be inputs to the RT SCED cases. Offers for 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. would be effective through 12, with offers for 12 to 1 p.m. used for the dispatch target 12:05.

The Market Implementation Committee endorsed the PJM plan in June, with many encouraging the RTO to continue to pursue both intermediate and long-term changes. (See PJM 5-Minute Dispatch Proposal Endorsed.)

Tim Horger of PJM provided an updated presentation on the package. He also highlighted some of the intermediate changes that have already been implemented by PJM, including moving to the five-minute auto case execution for RT SCED cases, which began June 23. Horger said the tests proved successful, and the RTO plans to keep the procedure in place permanently.

As an example, Horger said dispatchers had a 76% rate of approved RT SCED cases priced from Jan. 1 until June 22. But from June 23, when the five-minute auto case execution was implemented, up until July 13, Horger said the approved RT SCED cases priced went to 90%, calling it an “incredible improvement.”

Adrien Ford of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative had spoken at the MIC in support of a proposal presented by the Independent Market Monitor that included changes to dispatch and SCED calculations in addition to the settlements changes in the PJM package. But Ford said Thursday that ODEC had come to support the PJM package because of the work done by the RTO to improve the proposal.

“We were always supportive of [PJM’s] short-term changes, but we just wanted more,” Ford said. “We think these are very positive steps forward for PJM in aligning dispatch and pricing.”

The RTO has said it expects to continue evaluating long-term solutions into 2021, with a quantitative analysis of the pros and cons of different approaches.

Susan Bruce of the PJM Industrial Customer Coalition said the RTO was responsive to stakeholders’ concerns, with it “moving in the right direction.”

Bruce said one of her concerns was PJM maintaining proper documentation on the intermediate changes if the five-minute auto case execution doesn’t continue to work as planned. She said it would be helpful for market participants to have the RTO describe its documentation process in its filing letter to FERC.

Horger said PJM has committed to continue the auto execution started on June 23. He said if the RTO determines the process to not be effective in the long term, it will engage with stakeholders to see if there is another process or method that could be beneficial.

Voting Concerns

Despite the broad support for PJM’s plan, Thursday’s votes were not without some contention.

Greg Poulos, executive director of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, said the advocates opposed having the MC endorsement vote on the same day as the MRC’s.

PJM rules allow any stakeholder to object to a same-day vote to have the vote moved to the next MC meeting. Postponing the MC vote would have delayed a FERC filing because there is no MC meeting in August.

But 70% of MC members supported Exelon’s motion to suspend the rules to allow the vote, above the two-thirds threshold required.

Exelon’s Jason Barker said it was “curious” why the advocates would object to a same-day vote if they didn’t oppose the PJM proposal.

“The only purpose to the objection of the same day vote would be for delay, and to Exelon that seems to squander stakeholder time and lead to unnecessary delay,” Barker said.

Poulos said it was a “tricky situation” because the advocates still want to see a long-term solution implemented along with the short-term solution. Poulos said some of the advocates also objected to the PJM’s FERC filing on fast-start pricing, set for the end of July, and were concerned that the short-term proposal would be included in the filing.

FERC ordered PJM and FERC Stalls PJM Fast-start Compliance Filing.)

Poulos also said the advocates have been vocal in the past that same-day votes should not be held unless there is an immediate need.

“I can appreciate that from some people’s perspectives that there is a need to have the vote today, but we are not part of that group,” Poulos said.

PJM is looking to implement the five-minute dispatch and pricing rules in November pending FERC approval.