PJM is proposing to continue winter testing but stop compensating Capacity Performance players for it.
Operating Committee Chairman Mike Bryson said the idea is that those participants would be expected to factor the cost into their offers.
After some members questioned that plan, Bryson said he would take their comments back to PJM for further discussion.
The cold weather testing for 2015/16 yielded little in the way of useful data because the winter was so much warmer than the previous season, PJM’s David Schweizer told the committee. (See “Cold Weather Testing Cheaper, Longer than Previous Year,” PJM Operating Committee Briefs.)
“We don’t have much of a story to share here. It was an oddball winter,” he said. “It’s hard to draw any conclusions.”
Phasor Data Quality Task Force Sunsetted, Issue Moved to SIS
Members voted to sunset the Phasor Data Quality Task Force and transition the issue to a quarterly special session of the Systems Information Subcommittee.
“We’d like to continue to discuss the issue, but it’s not necessary to have a whole task force,” PJM’s Suzie Fahr said.
The special session will tack on about two hours quarterly to an SIS meeting, she said.
The task force was created under the SIS in December 2013 to improve the quality of synchrophasor data so that it could reliably be integrated into operational decision-making.
Since the group’s inception, the error rate of synchrophasor production data has shrunk from 14.35% to 2.45%.
PJM to Study Frequency Response for FERC Inquiry
PJM is conducting an internal analysis in response to FERC’s Feb. 18 notice of inquiry regarding frequency response, Eric Hsia told the committee. (See FERC Seeking Comments on Primary Frequency Response.)
The commission is seeking comment on whether new or existing resources should be required to have frequency response capabilities. It also wants to know the nature of frequency response compensation within the market optimization process.
PJM will present the results of its review at the May OC meeting.
Hsia said most resources that don’t provide frequency response are 10 MW or less and lack governors. Often these are distributed resources.
Operating Review Shows Perfect Dispatch Saved $33M YTD
A review of operating metrics showed that perfect dispatch has saved $33 million so far this year, with cumulative savings of $1.2 billion since the program was implemented in 2008.
Perfect dispatch, designed to measure how well PJM commits combustion turbines, is the hypothetical least production cost commitment and dispatch — what PJM would spend if it knew and could control all system conditions in advance.
The perfect dispatch rate this year through March was 83.92%.
The average load forecast error performance for March was 1.71%, within the goal of 3%. For the first quarter, all zones had errors below 3%, excluding East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which was above 4.5% (see chart).
The average forced outage rate through March was 3.48%, or 6,252 MW, with the total rate at 13.15%, or 24,743 MW.
– Suzanne Herel