The PJM Independent Market Monitor on Monday filed a complaint to FERC alleging that the RTO is in violation of its tariff by not permitting the Monitor to attend Liaison Committee meetings (EL23-50).

“It is inconsistent with the independence of PJM, the PJM board and the independence of the Market Monitor to exclude the Market Monitor from any stakeholder process,” the IMM argued. “PJM should be directed to permit the Market Monitor to register for and participate in meetings of the Liaison Committee.”

The next LC meeting is scheduled for April 3.

The Monitor was able to attend the committee’s meetings until 2018, when the Members Committee voted to enforce the LC’s charter and restrict participation to RTO members and the Board of Managers, also preventing state regulators and FERC staff from attending. The Monitor quoted the PJM tariff in arguing that it is allowed to participate in stakeholder meetings when it determines its participation to be “appropriate or necessary to perform its functions,” and that charter provisions in violation of the tariff cannot be enforced. (See “Liaison Committee Meeting to be Closed to Nonmembers,” PJM MRC/MC Briefs: Sept. 27, 2018.)

The West Virginia Public Service Commission has also filed a complaint against PJM over its exclusion from LC meetings, arguing that the tariff requires that ex officio, nonvoting members be allowed to observe and that preventing them from doing so is also a violation of nondiscrimination provisions in the Federal Power Act Sections 205 and 206 (EL23-45). (See W. Va. PSC Files Complaint over PJM Meeting Policy.)

After also being excluded from LC meetings in 2018 alongside the Monitor, West Virginia PSC staff attended two MC meetings in September and November 2021 to push for stakeholders to vote on a rule change to permit their attendance. A motion was made during the Nov. 17 meeting to open the LC, but stakeholders narrowly voted to indefinitely table discussion.