WILMINGTON, Del. — Mike Kormos, the departing chair of the Markets and Reliability Committee, couldn’t attend his last meeting because of a scheduling conflict, said CEO Andy Ott, who lauded his colleague for his nearly three decades of work at PJM.

“As he and I grew through the ranks of PJM, I saw him as a partner, and I think you all saw him as a person you could talk to on any subject and collaborate with,” he said. “I’m going to miss him. PJM is going to miss him. He has been with us for 28 years, and there’s just no replacing that kind of experience.”

Ott has said the position will not be filled.

Kormos, executive vice president and chief operations officer, announced his resignation last month. His last day with PJM is April 15. (See PJM COO Kormos Leaving; Post Won’t be Filled.) He has not indicated his future plans.

CFO Suzanne Daugherty, the new chair, presided over her first committee meeting. Members passed around Kormos’ place card, on which they penned parting sentiments.

Members OK Operating Parameters but Urge Refinements

The MRC unanimously approved changes to Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services Market Operations; Manual 15: Cost Development Guidelines; and Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting. The revisions define operating parameters. (See “Operating Parameter Definitions Approved,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)

The changes to Manual 15, regarding start-up and no-load costs, also were endorsed unanimously by the Members Committee.

An alternate proposal put forward by Bob O’Connell of Main Line Electricity Market Consultants was not taken up for a vote because the initial motion passed. Combined cycle units traditionally have been disadvantaged by these definitions, he said. Minimum run time begins when the first gas turbine is synchronized, he said, leaving open the possibility that PJM could release a unit before the steam turbine is synchronized. O’Connell’s definitions included a calculation that would let PJM know when the steam turbine had been synched.

While the parameters would not invoke a nonperformance charge under the new Capacity Performance construct, they could affect make-whole payments, PJM’s Adam Keech said.

While O’Connell’s definitions were not considered, a number of members and the Independent Market Monitor agreed that the issue he raised should be addressed.

PJM’s Adrien Ford, who chairs the Market Implementation Committee, pointed out that the problem statement leading to the operating parameter definitions had been amended in his committee, allowing for ongoing conversations about them.

Keech said that even if the alternate definitions were approved, PJM programmers wouldn’t be able to implement them by June 1, when the new delivery year begins under CP rules.

“We have a bunch of significant compliance obligations coming down the pike that we are trying to work through as soon as we can,” he said. “While I understand the value of these changes, they don’t fall into compliance changes. I’m not certain what date we could hit with these.”

If the way the parameters are used is changed, especially for combined cycle units, it would require changes to the software and how PJM clears the day-ahead markets, he said.

Ed Tatum of American Municipal Power encouraged PJM to continue studying the issue.

“The stakes are huge,” he said. “AMP is very concerned about how these parameters are going to be implemented. They could have draconian impacts on a supplier. It is important from our standpoint to get it right — and if we can’t get it right, to think about transitioning things so we’re not unduly burdening or penalizing people. This is a grave concern.”

MRC, MC Endorse Interim Ramp Rate for Performance Assessment Hours

MRC members approved a temporary performance assessment hour ramp rate with a 77% sector-weighted vote. The interim solution also was approved by the MC, over 11 objections.

The vote calls for revisions to Tariff and Manual 18: PJM Capacity Market. (See “PAH Ramp Rate for CP Approved,” PJM Operating Committee Briefs.)

Market Monitor Joe Bowring voiced his opposition. “This significantly weakens the incentives of Capacity Performance,” he said. “We regard this as a direct contravention of FERC’s no-excuses policy. It’s not a good idea.”

Assistant General Counsel Jen Tribulski said that PJM’s filing with FERC will explicitly note that the ramp rate is an interim measure to “get us through the coming months.”

“We fully intend to continue the discussion,” which will include the issue of using original equipment manufacturing specifications, she said.

MC Votes to Flex Meeting Start Time Following MRC

Following a lively debate, the Members Committee voted to flex the start time of its meetings going forward. The change will ensure that lunch is preserved, which members said is valuable for networking.

The issue had been raised at the last meeting by John Horstmann of Dayton Power & Light, who asked if there was a way to streamline the work of the MRC and MC, which are held on the same day.

On Thursday, he suggested allowing the MRC — which usually has a meatier agenda than the MC — to run as long as necessary in order not to truncate debate and have the MC start 15 minutes to a half hour after it ends. If necessary, members will break for lunch during the MRC meeting.

Ten members objected.

Scheduling Changes Approved

The MRC unanimously approved revisions to transmission and energy scheduling practices to reflect PJM’s adjustment to its day-ahead energy market timeline. The changes include adding a five-minute “shotgun window” for the spot-in product. (See “Day-ahead Submission Deadline Moved up,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)

MRC, MC Approve Updated Definitions, Clarifications to Governing Documents

The MRC approved updated definitions and clarifications to PJM’s governing documents. They involve the terms PJM board, market participant, credit breach, PJM region, regional entity, affiliate, PJM markets, economic minimum and transmission customer.

The MC also endorsed changes to governing documents as well as additional clarifications to previously endorsed revisions.

In addition, that committee approved Tariff and Operating Agreement revisions regarding the definition of the term counterparty. In an Aug. 27 vote, the word was removed from a batch of proposed definitions and returned to the Governing Documents Enhancements and Clarifications Subcommittee for further review at member request. The definition was aligned to use more precise language in the OA that specifies when PJMSettlement will and will not be a counterparty to a transaction or agreement.

Changes to Confidentiality Rule Allow Release of Certain Information

With two objections and one abstention, the MRC approved changes to Manual 33: Administrative Services for PJM Interconnection Agreement that allow PJM to release market data under six circumstances. (See “Market Data Confidentiality Rule Change Gets First Reading,” Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)

They address individual generation outages, the availability of demand response, cleared and offered capacity resources, information regarding uplift payments, results of the three pivotal supplier test and member data that has been made public by that member or a regulatory agency.

MRC Approves Manual Changes

The following manual changes were endorsed at Thursday’s meeting. Three of the votes were unanimous. There was one abstention on the changes to Manual 11 regarding Capacity Performance.

• Manual 1: Control Center and Data Exchange Requirements. Adds new section for planning, coordination and notification of system changes and events; includes new content with updated procedures. New Attachment C is the new Inter-Control Center Communication Protocol (ICCP) failover test plans diagram. Revisions remove references to the PJM ICCP network interface control document and PJM ICCP communications workbook.

PJM’s Ryan Nice said that some companies had been found to be taking outages of a few minutes on their emergency management systems and not alerting PJM. “The implications of that are quite serious,” he said.

• Manual 6: Financial Transmission Rights. Housekeeping changes resulting from annual review. Clarifications better describe existing rules and processes.
• Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services. Changes accommodate the implementation of Capacity Performance regarding unit-specific parameters. For non-Capacity Performance resources, the status quo remains until 2018. From that delivery year on, unit-specific parameters for base capacity resources will apply during hot weather alerts, emergency actions during hot weather operations and when being offer-capped to maintain system reliability. For CP resources, beginning in delivery year 2016, unit-specific parameters will apply during hot weather alerts, cold weather alerts, emergency actions and when being offer-capped to maintain system reliability.
• Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services Market Operations. Revisions reflect day-ahead market timeline changes. Among them: the deadline for submitting day-ahead bids will be 10:30 a.m. The day-ahead clearing window will be reduced to three hours. The deadline for posting day-ahead results will be 1:30 p.m. or as soon as practicable. Results will be posted upon approval but not before noon.

– Suzanne Herel