Below is a summary of the recommendations from PJM’s report on the operational challenges from January 2014. Recommendations new to the report are marked.

1. Unit Performance (NEW): Improve unit performance through incentives for performance and penalties for non-performance. Investigate unit testing, including testing dual-fuel capability. Improve preparation in advance of winter operations.
2. Unit Characteristics: Improve information sharing with generation owners, including fuel source and emission limitations. Improve specificity of the outage cause types in eDart and consider methods for validation. Clarify the rules for claiming an “Outside Management Control” event for taking an outage.
3. Gas/Electric Coordination: Improve harmonization of the timing of the gas and electric operating days. Allow generators to better include natural gas costs in their energy and capacity offers. Consider a review of offer caps and allowing generators to make changes to offers during the operating day. Consider allowing generators to reflect fuel availability in start-up and notification times.
4. Fuel Limited Resources (NEW): Improve information sharing for fuel-limited resources (those with less than 72 hours’ worth of fuel at maximum capacity).
5. Fuel-Specific Limitations (NEW): Consider methods for calling on long-lead generation based on fuel procurement limitations.
6. Energy Market Uplift: Review the cost allocation of energy market uplift.
7. Interregional Coordination (NEW): Increase situational awareness with the VACAR Reserve Sharing Group and Reliability Coordinator.
8. Unit Commitment (NEW): Clarify rules and conduct training regarding start-up costs and cancelled dispatch provisions.
9. Voltage Reduction Emergency Procedure: Review the voltage-reduction capabilities of transmission owners, particularly those without SCADA control.
10. Emergency Energy Bids: Enhance the tools and processes for accepting Emergency Energy Bids.
11. Regulation Market Rules (NEW): Reexamine the performance of the Regulation Market and investigate whether current rules are adequate. Consider going short regulation during system peaks.
12. External Capacity (NEW): Develop ways to confirm that external capacity resources either bid into the day-ahead market or submit eDart tickets indicating that they are unavailable. Ensure external resources are not declaring outages and selling energy into a different market.
13. Communications & Procedures (NEW): Improve how the Emergency Procedures tool is used to communicate. Consider adjustments to the roles and responsibilities for communications during emergency procedures. Refine training to reinforce processes and tools.
14. Public Appeals (NEW): Collect data on the impact of calls for conservation and improve processes for public notification during emergency procedures. Review triggers for public notifications.