PJM Interconnection has implemented its new performance-based regulations - a measure PJM says will align compensation with actual performance for resources that provide regulation service.
Regulation service - a separate market from energy and capacity - corrects for short-term changes in electricity use that might affect the stability of the power system.
"This new compensation structure creates greater incentive compensation for high-performing existing resources, and incentive for development of new, fast-responding technologies - such as batteries or flywheels - to participate in this market," says Andrew L. Ott, senior vice president at PJM Markets. "Ultimately, as the actual performance of regulation providers is better matched with the amount of resources needed, the system should realize greater efficiency and savings."
PJM uses a variety of resources to meet frequency-regulation needs. These resources differ in the speed in which they can increase and decrease their production, and differ in the accuracy of their response to the dispatch signal. Prior to this new structure, the regulation market did not distinguish between various levels of performance, and all resources were paid the same if they met minimum performance standards, PJM explains.
PJM also has implemented a structure for shortage pricing that establishes new rules for setting prices when PJM is operating at or close to a shortage of operating reserves. PJM says it seeks to have enough energy reserves to handle the loss of the largest generating unit on the system at the time.
