Below is a summary of the issues scheduled to be brought to a vote at the Markets and Reliability and Members committees Thursday. 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 in RTO Insider.
RTO Insider will be in Wilmington covering the discussions and votes. See next Tuesday’s newsletter for a full report.
Markets and Reliability Committee
2. PJM MANUALS (9:10-9:40)
- Manual 3: Transmission Operations – Adds language regarding approval of emergency rating changes; added applicability for individual generators greater than 20 MVA; clarified reference to voltage coordination; revised outdated references.
- Manual 10: Pre-Scheduling Operations – Annual Review. Minor updates for clarity; added references to forecasted planned outages and reporting outages on synchronous condensers.
- Manual 14D: Generator Operational Requirements – Changes made at RFC request, and for consistency. Includes changes to reactive capability testing; replaces outdated references; requires generators operating or scheduled for PJM to operate to notify PJM prior to attempting a restart following a trip or failure to start.
- Manual 14B: PJM Region Transmission Planning Process – Changes to improve the procedure for analyzing and addressing short circuits. PJM currently analyzes short circuit cases for the current year +1 and +5. System modifications are difficult for transmission owners to implement with a one-year lead time. The annual Regional Transmission Expansion Plan will analyze short circuit base cases for the current year +2.
3. GAS/ELECTRIC SENIOR TASK FORCE (GESTF) (9:40-10:10)
The committee will be asked to approve a proposed Problem Statement/Issue Charge to consider changing market rules to allow generators to reflect the cost of firm natural gas service and the timing of the Day-Ahead market clearing.
The potential changes will be evaluated by the Gas Electric Senior Task Force (GESTF), which was formed in March to study potential reliability problems resulting from PJM’s increasing reliability on gas-fired generation. (See previous coverage on gas-electric coordination.)
Under current rules, generators cannot reflect the cost of firm gas transportation in energy market offers. In addition, units must gas nominations before knowing whether they will be dispatched in the day-ahead market. Thus they may have to sell gas if their offer does not clear or derate during the morning peak if they don’t have enough gas.
Under the problem statement, the task force would consider potential changes to the timing of the day-ahead market clearing as well as rule changes that would allow offers to reflect firm gas costs and price changes between day-ahead commitments and real-time operation.
4. 2013 IRM STUDY (10:10-10:30)
The committee will be asked to endorse PJM staff’s recommendation to increase the Installed Reserve Margin (IRM) to 16.2% for delivery year 2014/15 (up from 15.9% in the 2012 analysis). The committee also will be asked to endorse margins of 15.7% for delivery years 2015 through 2018.
The increase, which was endorsed by the Planning Committee Oct. 10, is because of the increasing alignment of the RTO’s peak demand with demand outside of the region. (See Increased Installed Reserve Margin OKd for 2014)
Members Committee
2. CONSENT AGENDA (1:20-1:25)
B. Coordinated Transaction Scheduling
The Members Committee will be asked to approve Tariff and Operating Agreement changes to create the Coordinated Transaction Scheduling (CTS) product, designed to reduce uneconomic power flows between PJM and NYISO.
The new product would allow traders to submit “price differential” offers that would clear when the price difference between New York and PJM exceeds a threshold set by the bidder.
The Market Implementation Committee approved the product in September Coordinated Transaction Scheduling product after amending it to address member concerns about the reliability of PJM’s price projection algorithm, on which CTS trades will be based. The Markets and Reliability Committee approved the measure Sept. 26. (See New NYISO Product OKd)
C. Demand Response Registration Process
Members will be asked to approve Tariff and Operating Agreement revisions to simplify the process for registering demand response customers. The changes would remove or modify the role of load serving entities in the emergency and economic registration review process.
The change was approved by the Markets and Reliability and Market Implementation committees last month. (See Simplified DR Registration Process OKd)
3. SYNCHRONIZED RESERVE (SR) PERFORMANCE (1:25-1:45)
Members will be asked to approve increased penalties for under-performing Tier 2 synchronized reserve providers.
The MRC last month approved a proposal introduced by Dave Pratzon of GT Power Group after the Operating Committee selected it over a proposal from PJM and the Market Monitor. Pratzon said his proposal was tougher than the current penalty but less severe than the PJM-Market Monitor proposal, which he called overly punitive. (See OC Hears New Proposal on Synchronized Reserve Penalty; Delays Vote)
