New alert just dropped: The grid operator has introduced a “capacity advisory,” which notifies customers when power supply could soon run low—not due to extreme temperatures, but extreme demand. How it works: PJM will send out these alerts up to five days before a possible shortfall. As a result, neighboring grid operators could expect reduced imports and PJM would reschedule generation and transmission maintenance.
Also on the docket: As a “last resort” in “extreme” conditions, the RTO announced that it may ask for DOE permission to allow large loads to turn on backup generation (and avoid power outages).
The signal: “It's an acknowledgment that the old playbook, where capacity emergencies were basically a winter or summer weather problem, doesn't fully fit anymore,” Mona Dajani, Global Co-Chair of Infrastructure, Energy, and Real Estate at Cooley LLP, told Energy Central over email. “This is PJM building a tool for a new kind of stress on the system: not the weather, but the sheer pace of load growth.” Dajani’s advice for power pros? “Get ahead of this now,” and prep contracts and operating plans for this possibility.
Who’s next: MISO has rolled out a similar concept, Dajani said. And at her law practice, clients have asked to incorporate emergency curtailment and backup generation provisions into interconnection agreements and power contracts. “I expect that to become standard practice across the industry as more RTOs adopt similar emergency procedures.”
Molly Glick
Energy Central Team
Fri, Jun 26