By Suzanne Herel

WILMINGTON, Del. — A first-read proposal to disband a deadlocked Financial Transmission Rights/Auction Revenue Rights (FTR/ARR) Senior Task Force drew a strong reaction from stakeholders, with some expressing fears the dissolution might lead to a unilateral filing by the PJM board and others who said it was time to move on to other issues.

“We did reach consensus on one thing,” task force facilitator Dave Anders told the Markets and Reliability Committee on Thursday. “The group felt that it was not likely that there was anything more fruitful we could do with the FTRSTF.”

However, he said there was a chance one package that had garnered nearly 50% approval at the task force might win broader support with modifications.

“Members can make a motion at the MRC or [Members Committee] to propose something they feel might be able to reach a supermajority sector-weighted vote,” he said. “It did seem in the task force discussions that there’s a possibility out there — we just hadn’t latched on to it yet.”

The task force, formed last spring, was charged with evaluating causes for FTR underfunding and determining stakeholders’ expectations of ARR and FTR.

Stu Bresler, vice president of market operations, agreed with Anders. “We’ve been at this for a while and we’ve been unable to receive stakeholder consensus on a package of proposals. … We’ve seen an increasing percentage of stakeholders who say they want to see a change from the status quo. What is the expectation on the part of the stakeholders of how that might happen?”

Steve Lieberman of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative took Anders up on his offer and asked for a chance to draft a proposal for consideration at the next MRC meeting.

But others, including Bruce Bleiweis of DC Energy, who served on the task force, said it was time to move on.

“This is not the first task force that’s discussed this issue,” Bleiweis said. “This has gone on for years. There’s a large percentage of people who have been at the task force who have not offered alternatives, but they vote that they want change. The skeptical part of me asks, why do people want to keep having these discussions? Is it if we keep talking about these issues, [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] won’t act, PJM won’t act?

“I think the task force has been done for a while. We haven’t seen anything come out of the task force that would have a meaningful impact.”

Susan Bruce of the Industrial Customers Coalition said that while a majority of stakeholders might want change, the change they want varies widely.

“I want to make sure it’s clear from an industrial customer perspective that we have voted that we’re looking for change, but the definition of change that my clients are looking for and the definition of change that others are looking for may be different.

“The change that we’re looking for is incremental, if you will, and it is not fundamental,” Bruce said.