By David Jwanier

Nearing the end of one of the harshest winters in its history, PJM is considering requiring cold-weather testing of generators, officials told the Operating Committee last week.

During the polar vortex in early January, forced outages downed as much as 20% percent of PJM’s generation, including almost one-third of combustion turbines and diesel units. Operators had to resort to demand response and a voltage reduction to keep the grid functioning. Generator failures dropped to more typical rates of 8% to 10% later in the month.

The early January failure rate was the worst PJM has experienced since 1994, according to a “frequently asked questions” report on the January cold released last week. PJM, then only consisting of the MAAC region, saw rotating blackouts for several hours during the 1994 “Deep Freeze.”

Executive Director of System Operations Mike Bryson said the high initial failure rate has officials considering rules to require winter start tests for generators. Reintroducing winter capacity tests is also under consideration, he said.

Winter testing would “give GOs the opportunity to test units that don’t ordinarily start or that are using alternative fuels,” he said. “I’m less worried about capacity.”

Among the issues that stakeholders will need to discuss are the timing of the tests and compensation for generation operators. “You don’t want to start too early because that doesn’t replicate the cold weather,” said Bryson, who suggested the checks could be conducted between Thanksgiving and the end of December. Waiting until January, he said, “sort of defeats the purpose.”

One stakeholder suggested installing heaters on units and that providing additional staffing could help reliability but added that those costs aren’t recoverable.

Although the North American Electric Reliability Corp. may eventually issue cold weather reliability standards, Bryson said PJM should move to institute its own requirements by the fall.

“I don’t want to do nothing for next year,” Bryson said.