Stakeholders Endorse TO/TOP Matrix Revisions 

The Operating Committee endorsed revisions to the Transmission Owner/Transmission Operator (TO/TOP) Matrix, which defines the tasks TOs and PJM are accountable for to comply with NERC reliability standards. Gizella Mali, TO/TOP Matrix Subcommittee chair, said the changes reflect several new NERC reliability standards including EOP-011-4 (Emergency operations), FAC-014-3 (Establish and communicate system operating limits), IRO-017-1 (Outage coordination) and TOP-001-6 (Transmission operations). (See NERC Board Approves Cold Weather Standards.) 

Operating Metrics

PJM’s daily peak forecast error exceeded its targeted 3% two days last month, with actual loads Jan. 9 and Jan. 12 being between 3% and 4% higher than forecast, according to Markets Coordination Manager Stephanie Schwarz. The RTO experienced one shared reserve event and three spin events in January, and the winter storm that spread across the region in the middle of the month led to one conservative operations alert, two cold weather alerts and 22 post-contingency local load relief warnings. 

Security Update

PJM Director of Enterprise Information Security Jim Gluck urged members to keep computers and networked devices, particularly home routes for out-of-office employees, updated to reduce the risk that attackers can use old vulnerabilities to gain access to critical infrastructure and remain dormant. He said attacks from the Volt Typhoon group have targeted critical infrastructure software and attempted to fly under the radar by not installing malicious software to instead take advantage of any existing vulnerabilities. One of the group’s tactics has been using unsecured routers of employees working from home. 

A separate recent attack he highlighted used a company’s software development sandbox environment to gain access to a wider range of internal systems, including a portion of the company’s email accounts. He also gave the perennial advice that members be wary of suspicious communications that may be attempting to gain sensitive information or designed to trick employees into opening malicious files.  

Other Committee Business

• • Stakeholders endorsed revisions to Manual 38, which pertains to operations planning identified by PJM during the document’s periodic review. The new language would specify that the studies conducted by the Operations Assessment Task Force will use generation outage data selected from three previous seasons rather than comparable seasons. The changes are scheduled to be voted on by the Markets and Reliability Committee on Feb. 22. 
  • The committee endorsed revisions to Manual 40, which defines training and certification requirements, to update the titles of programs that have changed, clarify the responsibilities of different PJM positions and add detail to how rollover hours are calculated. The MRC is set to consider endorsing the changes Feb. 22. 
  • Stakeholders endorsed a PJM quick-fix proposal to remove the Compliance Bulletin 14 in Manual 3A and add language pointing to NERC’s bulk electric system (BES) element definitions. The compliance bulletin details how PJM members are to notify the RTO of any changes to BES elements resulting from NERC’s BES definition. The proposal is set for an endorsement vote at the MRC on Feb. 22 and at the System Operations Committee on March 1.