The following items were approved by members Thursday with little discussion or opposition:

Markets and Reliability Committee

Interchange Limits Approved

The MRC approved PJM’s proposal to limit interchange during emergency conditions by acclamation, with five objections. An MRC sector-weighted vote last month on the issue fell just short of a two-thirds approval. (See PJM MRC OKs Change on Reserves; Interchange Limit Falls Short.)

To address concerns raised by PJM’s Independent Market Monitor, the proposal was revised to include language to address hoarding and manipulation of interchange “room.” The rule is intended to prevent markets and operations from being whipsawed by large swings in imports.

In a related matter, the Members Committee approved revisions to Manual 11, Manual 28 and the Tariff concerning energy and reserve pricing.

Gas Unit Commitment Rules OK’d

Members approved changes to gas unit commitment rules, including a provision allowing generators to change their offers to reflect fluctuating fuel prices. Generators will be able to lock in their fuel prices three hours in advance of the operating hour. Officials said the increased flexibility will require software changes that should be complete in January.

The option will be available to resources that did not receive day-ahead commitments and were not picked up in the reliability assessment and commitment (RAC) run. Units with day-ahead commitments and those selected in the RAC run can switch prices after the end of their last committed hour. Units committed in real time will be unable to change their cost schedules until released. (See PJM Members Approve Intraday Updates to Generator Cost Schedules.)

PJM conducted training for system dispatchers yesterday on the changes.

Sampling to be used for Measuring Residential DR

Members approved a proposal allowing PJM to measure the demand response performance of some residential customers through sampling of interval-meter data. The new measurement method will replace outdated studies dating back to 2001.

The change won support of almost 81% of members on a sector-weighted vote. It was approved over opposition by Market Monitor Joe Bowring, who said sampling would not be as accurate as metered data. “We know when generators fail to respond because they are metered,” Bowring said. “The same will not be true here.”

PJM officials said sampling will improve accuracy without the cost of installing one-minute meters on every participating household. PJM’s Shira Horowitz said the new method builds on an “extremely successful” pilot program.

FirstEnergy’s Jim Benchek also opposed the change, saying it was a “carve out” for DR. He also said it was “inappropriate” to continue incorporating DR in the wholesale market in light of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ EPSA ruling, which concluded that DR in the energy market fell under the jurisdiction of the states and not under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s authority over wholesale markets. (See New Measurement Rules for Residential DR OK’d; FirstEnergy Opposes.)

Seller Credit Eliminated

Members agreed to eliminate the “seller credit” provision from its credit policy, which RTO officials said was no longer needed. The provision was enacted when PJM still used monthly billing, to allow participants with consistent net sell positions some unsecured credit. Due to changes in credit policy and the 2009 switch to weekly billing, the need for seller credit is now addressed by the Reliability Pricing Model seller credit, a larger and less volatile credit, PJM said.

Manual Changes

• Manual 3: Transmission Operations — Updates names; clarifies timing for load shed for post-contingency voltage collapse; updates several sections; adds procedures.
• Manual 13: Emergency Operations — Clarifies actions taken prior to emergency procedures; adds Min Gen Advisory procedure; updates Cold/Hot Weather Alerts; revises geomagnetic disturbance procedure; condenses and consolidates Attachment A.
• Manual 11: Energy & Ancillary Services Market Operations — The change will allow PJM to relieve demand response resources of their regulation and synchronized reserve responsibilities during Load Management Events. The change addresses the inability of DR resources to provide ancillary services and load management simultaneously.
• Manual 14B: PJM Regional Transmission Planning Process — Changes made in accordance with North American Electric Reliability Corp. standards PRC-023-3 (Transmission Relay Loadability) and TPL-001-4.
• Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting — Revised to include Load Reconciliation data in the settlement of emergency load response and emergency energy billing.
• Manual 29: Billing — Changes method of reimbursing treatment of underpayments of miscellaneous items and special adjustments to avoid cost shifts. In cases of shortages those parties due payments would be “short paid” on a pro-rata basis. Shortages will not be socialized among all members.
• Manual 13: Emergency Operations — Updates the 2015 day-ahead scheduling reserve requirement to 5.93%, down from 6.27% in 2014. The new requirement is based on a load forecast error of 2.15% (up 0.04% from 2014) and a forced outage rate of 3.78% (down 0.38%).

Members Committee

The committee approved:

• Operating Agreement (OA) revisions to ease Transmission Owners’ access to generator data feeds.
• Updated Installed Reserve Margins and related metrics for 2015/16 through 2018/19 delivery years.
• Non-substantive revisions to definitions in the Tariff and OA, aimed at providing alignment of definitions between the documents.