WILMINGTON, Del. — Mike Kormos, the departing chair of the Markets and Reliability Committee, couldn’t attend his last meeting because of a scheduling conflict, said CEO Andy Ott, who lauded his colleague for his nearly three decades of work at PJM.
“As he and I grew through the ranks of PJM, I saw him as a partner, and I think you all saw him as a person you could talk to on any subject and collaborate with,” he said. “I’m going to miss him. PJM is going to miss him. He has been with us for 28 years, and there’s just no replacing that kind of experience.”
Ott has said the position will not be filled.
Kormos, executive vice president and chief operations officer, announced his resignation last month. His last day with PJM is April 15. (See PJM COO Kormos Leaving; Post Won’t be Filled.) He has not indicated his future plans.
CFO Suzanne Daugherty, the new chair, presided over her first committee meeting. Members passed around Kormos’ place card, on which they penned parting sentiments.
Members OK Operating Parameters but Urge Refinements
The MRC unanimously approved changes to Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services Market Operations; Manual 15: Cost Development Guidelines; and Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting. The revisions define operating parameters. (See “Operating Parameter Definitions Approved,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
The changes to Manual 15, regarding start-up and no-load costs, also were endorsed unanimously by the Members Committee.
An alternate proposal put forward by Bob O’Connell of Main Line Electricity Market Consultants was not taken up for a vote because the initial motion passed. Combined cycle units traditionally have been disadvantaged by these definitions, he said. Minimum run time begins when the first gas turbine is synchronized, he said, leaving open the possibility that PJM could release a unit before the steam turbine is synchronized. O’Connell’s definitions included a calculation that would let PJM know when the steam turbine had been synched.
While the parameters would not invoke a nonperformance charge under the new Capacity Performance construct, they could affect make-whole payments, PJM’s Adam Keech said.
While O’Connell’s definitions were not considered, a number of members and the Independent Market Monitor agreed that the issue he raised should be addressed.
PJM’s Adrien Ford, who chairs the Market Implementation Committee, pointed out that the problem statement leading to the operating parameter definitions had been amended in his committee, allowing for ongoing conversations about them.
Keech said that even if the alternate definitions were approved, PJM programmers wouldn’t be able to implement them by June 1, when the new delivery year begins under CP rules.
“We have a bunch of significant compliance obligations coming down the pike that we are trying to work through as soon as we can,” he said. “While I understand the value of these changes, they don’t fall into compliance changes. I’m not certain what date we could hit with these.”
If the way the parameters are used is changed, especially for combined cycle units, it would require changes to the software and how PJM clears the day-ahead markets, he said.
Ed Tatum of American Municipal Power encouraged PJM to continue studying the issue.
“The stakes are huge,” he said. “AMP is very concerned about how these parameters are going to be implemented. They could have draconian impacts on a supplier. It is important from our standpoint to get it right — and if we can’t get it right, to think about transitioning things so we’re not unduly burdening or penalizing people. This is a grave concern.”
MRC, MC Endorse Interim Ramp Rate for Performance Assessment Hours
MRC members approved a temporary performance assessment hour ramp rate with a 77% sector-weighted vote. The interim solution also was approved by the MC, over 11 objections.
The vote calls for revisions to Tariff and Manual 18: PJM Capacity Market. (See “PAH Ramp Rate for CP Approved,” PJM Operating Committee Briefs.)
Market Monitor Joe Bowring voiced his opposition. “This significantly weakens the incentives of Capacity Performance,” he said. “We regard this as a direct contravention of FERC’s no-excuses policy. It’s not a good idea.”
Assistant General Counsel Jen Tribulski said that PJM’s filing with FERC will explicitly note that the ramp rate is an interim measure to “get us through the coming months.”
“We fully intend to continue the discussion,” which will include the issue of using original equipment manufacturing specifications, she said.
MC Votes to Flex Meeting Start Time Following MRC
Following a lively debate, the Members Committee voted to flex the start time of its meetings going forward. The change will ensure that lunch is preserved, which members said is valuable for networking.
The issue had been raised at the last meeting by John Horstmann of Dayton Power & Light, who asked if there was a way to streamline the work of the MRC and MC, which are held on the same day.
On Thursday, he suggested allowing the MRC — which usually has a meatier agenda than the MC — to run as long as necessary in order not to truncate debate and have the MC start 15 minutes to a half hour after it ends. If necessary, members will break for lunch during the MRC meeting.
Ten members objected.
Scheduling Changes Approved
The MRC unanimously approved revisions to transmission and energy scheduling practices to reflect PJM’s adjustment to its day-ahead energy market timeline. The changes include adding a five-minute “shotgun window” for the spot-in product. (See “Day-ahead Submission Deadline Moved up,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
MRC, MC Approve Updated Definitions, Clarifications to Governing Documents
The MRC approved updated definitions and clarifications to PJM’s governing documents. They involve the terms PJM board, market participant, credit breach, PJM region, regional entity, affiliate, PJM markets, economic minimum and transmission customer.
The MC also endorsed changes to governing documents as well as additional clarifications to previously endorsed revisions.
In addition, that committee approved Tariff and Operating Agreement revisions regarding the definition of the term counterparty. In an Aug. 27 vote, the word was removed from a batch of proposed definitions and returned to the Governing Documents Enhancements and Clarifications Subcommittee for further review at member request. The definition was aligned to use more precise language in the OA that specifies when PJMSettlement will and will not be a counterparty to a transaction or agreement.
Changes to Confidentiality Rule Allow Release of Certain Information
With two objections and one abstention, the MRC approved changes to Manual 33: Administrative Services for PJM Interconnection Agreement that allow PJM to release market data under six circumstances. (See “Market Data Confidentiality Rule Change Gets First Reading,” Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
They address individual generation outages, the availability of demand response, cleared and offered capacity resources, information regarding uplift payments, results of the three pivotal supplier test and member data that has been made public by that member or a regulatory agency.
MRC Approves Manual Changes
The following manual changes were endorsed at Thursday’s meeting. Three of the votes were unanimous. There was one abstention on the changes to Manual 11 regarding Capacity Performance.
- Manual 1: Control Center and Data Exchange Requirements. Adds new section for planning, coordination and notification of system changes and events; includes new content with updated procedures. New Attachment C is the new Inter-Control Center Communication Protocol (ICCP) failover test plans diagram. Revisions remove references to the PJM ICCP network interface control document and PJM ICCP communications workbook.
PJM’s Ryan Nice said that some companies had been found to be taking outages of a few minutes on their emergency management systems and not alerting PJM. “The implications of that are quite serious,” he said.
- Manual 6: Financial Transmission Rights. Housekeeping changes resulting from annual review. Clarifications better describe existing rules and processes.
- Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services. Changes accommodate the implementation of Capacity Performance regarding unit-specific parameters. For non-Capacity Performance resources, the status quo remains until 2018. From that delivery year on, unit-specific parameters for base capacity resources will apply during hot weather alerts, emergency actions during hot weather operations and when being offer-capped to maintain system reliability. For CP resources, beginning in delivery year 2016, unit-specific parameters will apply during hot weather alerts, cold weather alerts, emergency actions and when being offer-capped to maintain system reliability.
- Manual 11: Energy and Ancillary Services Market Operations. Revisions reflect day-ahead market timeline changes. Among them: the deadline for submitting day-ahead bids will be 10:30 a.m. The day-ahead clearing window will be reduced to three hours. The deadline for posting day-ahead results will be 1:30 p.m. or as soon as practicable. Results will be posted upon approval but not before noon.
– Suzanne Herel
The model could support New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision plan by simulating how distributed resources, such as solar arrays and battery storage systems, might impact the power system. This model seeks to identify the scale at which distributed resources become beneficial to the grid while taking into account potential impacts on electricity prices, grid reliability and the environment.
The average price of wholesale electricity, pushed lower by depressed natural gas prices, last year dropped to the second-lowest level in 12 years in New England, according to preliminary figures from ISO-NE.
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. has reached a settlement agreement that would allow it to proceed with a $1.25 billion seven-year infrastructure-upgrade plan. The utility originally sought $1.33 billion.
The Public Service Commission reversed itself and voted to permit the $4.9 billion sale of Cleco to a consortium led by foreign investors. Cleco agreed not to raise its rates until 2020, and the utility’s 286,000 customers also would receive credits averaging $500 each for the next few years.
A proposed law aimed at saving the state’s ailing biomass energy plants would save logging industry jobs but could add millions of dollars to electricity bills.
Landowners last week complained to the Department of Public Utilities at a public hearing about Kinder Morgan’s proposal to take rights of way by eminent domain along the proposed route of its Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline.
A Marion Township moratorium to delay wind projects won’t impede the proposed wind farm that inspired the moratorium in the first place.
Public Service Commission Staff Director Natelle Dietrich disparaged a proposal that would make it easier for Ameren to raise rates to pay for grid upgrades, calling it a “radical departure” from the current rate-setting procedure.
State regulators last week ordered NorthWestern Energy to refund $8.24 million that it charged to buy electricity on the open market during a six-month outage in 2013 at the Colstrip coal plant. The Public Service Commission said that NorthWestern failed to take prudent actions to protect customers against the financial exposure from such a massive outage.
NYISO has selected Jane Sadowsky and Bernard Dan to fill vacancies on its Board of Directors, effective this month.
More than 150 people gathered for a 12-hour Public Service Commission hearing about the controversial, 87-turbine Brady Wind Energy Center in Stark County.
The Corporation Commission says distributed generation and its effect on the grid should be explored in Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s pending $92.5 million rate case.
A company that had planned to build a $360 million, 90-MW plant to generate electricity from old tires instead will partner with a high-tech firm to develop a facility to make diesel fuel and other products from the material.
National Grid has started construction on a new substation that will improve electricity delivery to downtown Providence and the South Street Landing project.
A Brown University professor is arguing that the construction of a new natural gas-fired power plant in Burrillville would make it impossible for the state to meet its target for reducing carbon emissions in the coming decades.
Opponents of a proposed electricity-producing manure digester in St. Albans say the project would jeopardize the wetlands that it ostensibly is designed to protect.
The State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Greensville County.
The commission extended the commenting deadline to April 5, a week short of MRES’ request but four days longer than what ALLETE and GRE were willing to concede.
