With no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic, a top PJM official last week reflected on the ups and downs in the RTO’s footprint since the March outbreak.

Asim Haque, PJM’s vice president of state and member services, was speaking at Raab Associates’ Energy Policy Roundtable in the PJM footprint on Wednesday, which featured panels on the consequences of COVID-19 on customers, energy markets and the continuing goals of clean energy reform.

Haque said it was important to provide the RTO’s perspective on wholesale and regional dynamics from the pandemic while talking about the “sobering and almost surreal topic.”

Haque said PJM takes seriously its responsibility for maintaining a reliable bulk power system for 65 million people, the importance of which has become more evident during the pandemic.

“Keeping the lights on is essential to supporting what could be described as a generally fragile economy, both local and national, as well as consumers who are more reliant than ever on reliable power delivery to their homes in order to work and do virtual schooling,” Haque said.

PJM took cautious measures toward COVID-19 from the onset, Haque said, by sending employees home from its campus in early March, sequestering system operators and turning its training center into a third control room in case of an emergency or an internal outbreak of the virus. Haque said most PJM employees continue to work from home, and the RTO recently announced it will remain in the same conservative posture with the campus closed until at least June 2021.

Haque said the impacts on the wholesale energy market have been sizeable. By early May PJM saw considerable reductions in peak and overall energy usage, coming in at “double-digit percentages,” as many businesses shut down. The market recovered somewhat in the summer as temperatures rose and restrictions eased in many states, he said. (See PJM Analyzes Potential COVID-19 Generation Losses.)

One of the biggest impacts for PJM has been in forecasting, as discussions continue between operators and stakeholders over the best forecasting models to use, Haque said.

“COVID-19 has surely thrown a wrench in the forecasting that we wouldn’t have predicted in 2019,” Haque said.

Haque said a silver lining from the pandemic would be the interactions and coordination between PJM and state agencies, leading to “cooperative, collaborative conversations.”

Issues that typically wouldn’t have been discussed before made their way to the forefront, he said, including weekly meetings with state regulatory agencies about the coordination of refueling nuclear plants and conversations around concepts like the definitions of essential personnel.

As the pandemic progressed, PJM shared market information to help state officials better understand potential impacts on consumers, Haque said.

PJM also began “taking cues from the states” to ask how the RTO could help advance energy policy initiatives, Haque continued. He said 2020 began with the expectation that “robust legislative discussions” over “hefty policy matters” would occur during the year, but the pandemic thwarted many of those efforts.

PJM decided to launch its concept of a “state policy solutions” group to work directly with states on technical issues requiring the RTO’s expertise, Haque said, noting that PJM has acknowledged the rapidly changing energy landscape and that it must evolve to work with states more closely to help advance energy policy objectives in the most effective way.

Haque highlighted PJM’s efforts on offshore wind as an endeavor to assist states in formulating their policies. He said the pandemic did not slow the desire of PJM states to develop offshore wind, with coastal states having OSW targets exceeding 14,000 MW and more than 20 projects in PJM’s interconnection queue. (See Md., NC, Va. To Team up on Offshore Wind.)

Another issue gaining momentum during the pandemic is FERC Order 2222 to facilitate the participation of DER in organized markets, Haque said. (See FERC Opens RTO Markets to DER Aggregation.)

“Order 2222 should reflect a new collaborative paradigm between PJM and the states,” Haque said. “The FERC order actually mandates that there be a collaborative paradigm created by PJM, states and distribution utilities.”