Stakeholders approved a rule change to ensure zones don’t lose Auction Revenue Rights due to anomalies caused by storms or other extraordinary events.

The vote to revise the definition of Zonal Base Load was prompted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Storm-related outages produced ZBLs in the AE, JCPL, PSEG and RECO zones that were far lower than would have been expected under normal conditions, PJM’s Brian Chmielewski told the Market Implementation Committee.

PJM obtained a waiver from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February to prevent the zones from losing a portion of their Stage 1A ARR allocations as a result of the muted ZBLs.

ARR allocations are based on zones’ base loads, defined as the lowest daily zonal peak load for the year ending Oct. 21 preceding the annual ARR allocation.

The revised definition allows PJM to ignore load figures resulting from “extraordinary circumstances,” resulting in “an abnormal reduction” in energy consumption. The new definition will require changes to the Tariff, Operating Agreement and Manual 6.