VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM generators performed much better during this winter’s cold than a year ago, with forced outage rates limited to 12.3% on Feb. 20, when PJM set a new record winter peak load of 143,826 MW. About 22,800 MW of generation was unavailable due to forced outages.
The new record topped the peak of 142,863 MW set on Jan. 7, 2014, when PJM saw a forced outage rate of 22% (38,000 MW). (See Cold Sends PJM to New Winter Record.)
Compared with last year, this winter saw some areas with colder temperatures, and they extended farther south, dispatch manager Chris Pilong told the Operating Committee last week.
About 22% of the outages Feb. 20 were due to gas issues. PJM lost 17,500 MW to forced outages the night before the record was set, of which one-third were gas-related.
No emergency procedures were required, and no demand response was dispatched, during the cold snap. There were no major transmission constraints.
SynchroPhasor Error Rates Greatly Improved
SynchroPhasor error rates have been trending downward in the past few months. In January, five of the 12 companies met the 0.2% error goal, and four others were below 1%.
The phasor measurement unit (PMU) technology is not currently considered a “critical” cyber asset but could become so in about a year. Critical assets are defined as those whose failure would, within 15 minutes, adversely impact systems in a way that would affect the reliable operation of the bulk electric system.
PJM expects the technology to become critical once it is used in solutions by the state estimator or becomes crucial to interconnection reliability operating limit (IROL) determinations.
Emergency Tool Refresh Underway
A revamped emergency procedures tool, which has been in testing since Feb. 19, is expected to go live March 30. Phase 2 enhancements are expected to be rolled out in June.
Fuel Type Posting Rule Takes Effect April 1
Generation operators will be required to enter fields for energy fuel type (and sub type) and start-up fuel (and sub type) in eMKT beginning April 1. Offers lacking the information will be rejected.
The rule change follows the Feb. 23 introduction of new functionality allowing generators to make intraday cost schedule changes in eMKT. The manual process for such changes is no longer being used.
— Suzanne Herel