Russia Showing Restraint in Cyber Responses

PJM Chief Information Security Officer Steve McElwee provided the Operating Committee a security update, saying Russia has continued to show restraint in retaliatory attacks against Western nations supporting Ukraine.

Although there had been concern that Russia would launch widespread cyberattacks, “their focus so far has been to augment their physical attack against Ukraine,” McElwee said.

In contrast, the NotPetya attack had “no boundaries on which organizations were victimized,” he said. The June 2017 malware attack on the websites of Ukrainian banks, ministries, newspapers and electric utilities also resulted in infections in Western Europe, the U.S. and Australia.

Researchers said the attacks they are seeing against Ukraine are contained to prevent collateral damage. However, McElwee said criminal and hacktivist groups like Killnet continue to threaten attacks and casualties on Russia’s behalf. “Most recently, they’ve been targeting Lockheed Martin,” he said.

Hybrid Manual Language Endorsed

The committee endorsed manual language conforming to FERC’s July 12 order accepting PJM’s clarifications on its rules for hybrid resources and mixed technology facilities (ER22-1420-002). The RTO filed its proposal on March 22.

The changes affect Manual 10: Pre-Scheduling Operations and Manual 14D: Generator Operational Requirements. In Manual 14D, the changes concern metering requirements, outage reporting and voltage schedules, with a new section 13 for mixed technology facilities.

Second ‘First Read’ on Max Emergency Status for Coal Plants

PJM postponed a vote on competing RTO and Independent Market Monitor proposals for managing remaining run hours for coal-fired and other generating resources limited by fuel shortages or environmental restrictions.

Because of changes to the proposals since the committee’s July meeting, “it was decided that another first read would be appropriate,” said PJM’s Jeff McLaughlin. (See PJM Considers Changes to Max Emergency Status for Coal Plants.)

PJM added references to coal- and natural gas-fired generating units subject to Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).

The Monitor had multiple additions, including changing the reference to “fuel” to “fuel and consumables.” It also added more detail to the conditions that qualify as “fuel limits” for being eligible for maximum emergency status. They would be defined as physical events that affect the infrastructure used to “procure, treat or transport fuel or consumables” that are beyond owner control — meaning the generator has no other procurement options.

“Temporary” interruptions would be limited to seven days, with generators required to provide a projected delivery date from the supplier.

The IMM would create a new availability status for “fuel/consumables conservation” that would allow committed capacity resources with 10 days or less of inventory that do not qualify for the maximum emergency fuel limit to make its unit unavailable for economic dispatch. Such units would be subject to a penalty equal to their daily capacity value based on the Base Residual Auction price.

IROL-CIP Cost Recovery

PJM presented a first read on a procedure for obtaining reimbursement for compliance with NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection standard CIP-002-5.1, which requires identification of generating units that are critical to the derivation of interconnection reliability operating limits (IROLs).

Resources identified by PJM as an IROL critical resource would submit their capital and recurring costs for review by the RTO and Monitor annually. PJM would make monthly payments to the generators.

The issue will be brought to a vote at the OC’s meeting next month.

New Cold Weather Advisory 

Members heard a first read of manual changes to comply with NERC standards for cold weather preparedness: EOP-011 (Emergency Preparedness and Operations), IRO-010 (Reliability Coordinator Data Specification and Collection) and TOP-003 (Operational Reliability Data).

PJM is creating a new cold weather advisory to clarify RTO and member actions for gathering and reporting information required by the NERC standards. The advisory would be issued more than 24 hours in advance of a cold spell — likely three to five days in advance — and would precede the issuance of a cold weather alert.

The changes will affect Manual 14D: Generator Operational Requirements and Manual 13: Emergency Operation.

Generation owners will be required to ensure updated information on their units’ temperature operating limits in Markets Gateway.

PJM added a recommendation to its Cold Weather Preparation Guideline and Checklist to take into account the effects of precipitation and wind during cold weather preparation.

The committee will be asked to endorse the changes at its next meeting.

Manual 39: Nuclear Plant Interface Coordination

Darrell Frogg of PJM reviewed proposed changes to Manual 39: Nuclear Plant Interface Coordination as a result of a periodic review. The changes include updated references to NERC’s mission and its mandatory standards, as well as a list of revisions to plant-specific nuclear plant interface requirements.

The committee will be asked to endorse these changes at its next meeting.

PPL Dynamic Line Ratings Implementation Confirmed for Sept. 12

PPL (NYSE:PPL) is continuing plans for introducing dynamic line ratings to the double-circuit 230-kV Susquehanna-Harwood and the 230-kV Juniata-Cumberland lines on Sept. 12, PJM’s David Hislop told the committee.

A “go/no go” determination will be announced on Aug. 31, two weeks before the transition.

Assuming a decision to “go,” PJM will begin posting PPL’s forecasted DLRs at 3 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 12, and begin using the company’s ambient tables for reliability studies and the day-ahead market for Sept. 14. The RTO will then begin posting PPL real-time DLR data at 12 to 1 p.m. on Sept. 14.

Any changes to the plan will be communicated to OC stakeholders via Pardot.

PJM/IMM Proposal on Improving Renewable Dispatch

Members heard a first read of a PJM/Monitor proposal to improve the dispatch of renewable generators to address operational concerns.

PJM said it wants to increase the accuracy of renewables’ dispatch and improve its ability to forecast near-term changes in resource output. “As the number of renewable resources grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manually manage the dispatch,” PJM said in its problem statement.

The proposal would require intermittent units to have an economic minimum of zero and to have an infinite turn down ratio — the difference between eco max and eco min.

The proposal also would require generators to update critical parameters every five minutes for real-time security-constrained economic dispatch (SCED) cases and hourly updates of parameters for intermediate-termed SCED cases. Current rules require hourly updates but provide limited guidance on specific parameters.

Wind resources are currently eligible for lost opportunity costs (LOC) when they are able to follow SCED dispatch instructions and have supervisory control and data acquisition capability to transmit and receive instructions from PJM. The RTO-IMM proposal would allow solar resources to qualify for LOC under the same rules.

PJM currently has no metrics measuring the impact of renewables’ dispatch. The proposal would establish metrics that the RTO would review monthly with stakeholders. Potential metrics include renewable forecast accuracy; curtailment frequency; real-time performance versus SCED expectations; and the accuracy of bid-in parameters.

The proposal also calls for development of a look-ahead tool to evaluate renewables’ impact.

Intermediate-termed SCED looks ahead about two hours, considering all resource types. The additional tool would be contingent on renewable forecasts reaching acceptable accuracy levels.

Implementation would be no earlier than the second quarter of 2023. The OC will be asked to endorse the proposal at its next meeting.