By Rory D. Sweeney

NYISO and PJM are finding that coordinating transmission across their border is not simple.

After an effort to make it easier for traders to schedule imports from New York failed at the Nov. 2 Market Implementation Committee meeting, stakeholders will resume efforts at a special MIC meeting Dec. 21.

Vitol’s Joe Wadsworth, who has championed efforts to streamline the process for several years, won stakeholder approval in April for a problem statement seeking ways to improve the method of reserving PJM spot-in (non-firm) transmission for energy imports scheduled day-ahead from NYISO. Spot-in service is free but limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additionally, the deadlines for requesting the service from PJM and learning the results of NYISO’s day-ahead energy auction are staggered such that participants looking to import power must reserve spot-in capacity from PJM before knowing how much they’ll need. PJM requests must be made at 9 a.m. to have any hope of success, yet the results of NYISO’s day-ahead market usually aren’t available until after 9:30 a.m.

This creates the risk that “there may not be enough spot-in service available for participants who received a cleared day-ahead schedule to import power into PJM,” the problem statement reads, which leaves them “scrambling” to find service. Failure to obtain transmission results in the import being curtailed, which “can create imbalances that must be settled against real-time prices.”

Armed with the problem statement, Wadsworth, PJM and NYISO began discussing potential solutions. NYISO, concerned about those potential imbalances creating costs for its members, proposed a market-based solution that would allocate the costs to PJM’s members.

Wadsworth also favored a market-based solution, but PJM decided, after researching potential solutions, that it would be a much more difficult implementation than the RTO preferred. As a compromise, Wadsworth and PJM developed a proposal that they thought addressed the problem without being overly complex: delay the earliest request for spot-in service from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. so participants will know how much they need before they request it.

Wadsworth and PJM’s Chris Pacella presented the idea at the Nov. 2 MIC meeting.

“Maybe this is the simple change that eliminates all those risks,” Wadsworth said. (See “NYISO to be Consulted on Changing Spot-in Service Allocation Methods,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)

Problem solved!

Software Changes

Except there was one catch: Pacella explained that PJM can make a deadline change for all imports, but that limiting the change to just NYISO would require time-consuming software changes.

PJM Independent Market Monitor Joe Bowring took issue with making a global change, saying it’s not consistent with the problem statement. When the issue first came up, he said, he attempted to argue that it should apply to all RTO interfaces, not just NYISO, but was “told explicitly” that was out of the problem statement’s scope. He said the correct procedural step would be to amend the problem statement to include all RTO seams.

Dan Griffiths, of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, agreed. “I’m kind of indifferent to the outcome, but I’d like to see this addressed properly,” he said.

PJM’s Mike Bryson cautioned against the global approach, saying it would create operational problems. “The all-borders issue causes me great concern,” he said.

Wadsworth agreed, saying he preferred to limit the scope of the deadline change to just the NYISO seam. “I think we need to think through all the consequences,” he said.

Other stakeholders, however, wanted to get to the bottom of NYISO’s concerns. “I’d like a better explanation of the mechanics of what it is that NYISO thinks is increasing the costs,” said Roy Shanker of H.Q. Energy Services. “This summary just doesn’t make sense to me. … You may or may not want to pick a fight, but I feel like everybody on both sides should know what’s going on.”

“In these preliminary stages, we’re beholden to New York’s stance,” Pacella said. He later acknowledged, however, that there is precedent for a market-based solution with the cross-seam transmission agreement in place between NYISO and ISO-NE.

An MIC vote on amending the problem statement, which was motioned by Bob O’Connell of PPGI Fund A/B Development and seconded by Jung Suh of Noble Americas, was tabled until the committee’s next meeting on Dec. 14. However, it likely won’t receive much discussion there because of the MIC special session on Dec. 21. It is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. at PJM’s Conference & Training Center in Valley Forge.