Commentary by Rich Heidorn Jr.

This is the space where we would have told you what happened at the PJM Board of Managers’ Enhanced Liaison Committee meeting Tuesday.

The subject of the meeting was PJM’s Capacity Performance proposal, by far the biggest, most expensive set of rule changes the RTO has considered in the nearly two years that RTO Insider has been providing stakeholder coverage.

While more than 300 stakeholders and state representatives attended the meeting or listened in by phone, the press and public were explicitly excluded under PJM rules that also bar attendees from sharing what they heard.

That is a disservice to our thousands of readers and to the 61 million people served by PJM, who will pay for whatever changes the board proposes and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves.

We are happy that most PJM members have become accustomed to the presence of a reporter in their meetings over the last two years. Many have acknowledged the pains we have taken to ensure we quote members fairly and in context.

We hope that the members and the board will change the rules and extend this laudable transparency to future Liaison Committee meetings.