VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — FERC did not act on PJM’s proposed changes to its shortage pricing, so revisions for how to handle transient shortages will go into effect May 11 as planned, Manager of Real-time Market Operations Lisa Morelli told the Market Implementation Committee on Thursday. (See “Order 825 Implementation Moves Forward,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
The curve step changes are still on track to be implemented on July 1, but it’s unclear whether that will definitely happen.
“There’s unfortunately uncertainty [about] a lot of what’s happening at FERC right now,” PJM attorney Steve Shparber said. “We will keep going on until we hear otherwise.”
PJM’s plan would change the scarcity signal for the maximum $850 penalty factor from the economic maximum of the single largest contingency to the highest actual output of a single unit. Next, it would add two lower “steps” that would trip a $300 pricing level. One step would be calculated as the highest actual output plus 190 MW — a static number derived from the synchronous reserve mean of the Mid-Atlantic Dominion zone plus one standard deviation. The second step would be calculated as the previous step plus an extension.
PJM to Review Black Start Prior to New RFP
PJM released its first request for proposals on black start units in 2013 to have them in place by 2015. As part of that process, the RTO instituted a five-year review, meaning the next black start RFP will be in 2018 for projects to be available in 2020.
To begin that process, staff will be holding a special one-hour session after the May 2 Operating Committee meeting to review results and lessons from the first RFP. Stakeholders pointed out that that is the second day of the FERC technical conference on the impact of state policies on RTO operations in PJM, ISO-NE and NYISO (AD17-11). PJM staff promised the meeting will be quick.
Earlier in the meeting, stakeholders endorsed changes to the annual revenue requirements for black start units. PJM and its Independent Market Monitor came to an agreement on having the revenue go into a non-interest-bearing account for each unit until its costs have been approved, at which point the RTO will conduct a true-up.
— Rory D. Sweeney