PJM will attempt to win stakeholder approval for limited changes to the compensation rules for black start units and a plan for selecting “backstop” resources for regions that fail to secure service through competitive solicitations.
In February, stakeholders rejected two proposals that would have boosted payments to existing black start units by at least 40%. (See Stakeholders Reject Pay Hike for Black Start Units.)
The changes that will be considered by the Markets and Reliability Committee July 31 would make relatively minor changes to compensation rules, allowing:
- Compensation for storage of propane and liquefied natural gas. Current rules permit compensation only for oil storage.
- Compensation for energy-only resources.
- Recovery of the costs of complying with the rules of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) for automatic load rejection (ALR) units.
The changes received only 58% support in a poll of the System Restoration Strategy Task Force, well below the two-thirds vote it will need to clear at the MRC.
The task force unanimously approved a second proposal for selecting black start resources for zones that are unable to obtain black start services through PJM’s requests for proposals (RFPs). The “backstop” provision would be triggered by a failure of an RTO-wide RFP and two incremental RFPs. It would apply to zones that cannot be serviced by generation in another zone or through transmission upgrades to improve their cranking path.
Under the proposal, the host transmission owner would be responsible for obtaining black start service either through its generation affiliate or by contracting with a third-party generator. The unit providing black start capability under the scenario would be prevented from offering into the energy or ancillary services markets.
The alternative, explained PJM’s Chantal Hendrzak, “is to wait for another part of the system to come up” to jump start the zone.
