PJM Issues Market Notice On "Significant And Unusual Congestion Patterns"

PJM and the Independent Market Monitor issued a market notice today stating, "PJM and the Independent Market Monitor (IMM) are aware of the significant and unusual congestion patterns resulting from the long-term construction outage of the Lanexa – Dunnsville 230kV line in the Dominion Virginia Power transmission zone. PJM and the IMM have been and are continuing to investigate contributing factors to these congestion patterns, including the extremely limited availability of controlling actions in the local area, switching procedures that have been implemented and the controllability of the flows on the constrained line resulting from the outage. PJM and the IMM are also investigating the virtual bidding activity in the area and the relationship between virtual trades and FTR positions impacting this congestion."

"PJM and the IMM are collaborating on evaluating potential actions that might mitigate this congestion, consistent with applicable regulatory requirements and good utility practice. Any such actions will be communicated promptly to the PJM stakeholder community," the notice said

"Further, the IMM is concerned about manipulative activity in this area – specifically, activity in the virtual market that takes advantage of false arbitrage opportunities caused by day-ahead and real-time modeling differences, and virtual activity that affects the value of FTRs," the notice stated

"FERC made clear in their latest order on the FTR forfeiture rule that market manipulation is not acceptable. The Commission stated: 'While granting PJM’s request for clarification on this issue means that there will be no FTR Forfeiture Rule in effect between May 20, 2021 and the date the Commission imposes a replacement rate, we emphasize that the Commission’s Anti-Manipulation Rule [n.6: See 18 C.F.R. § 1c.2 (2020)] remains in effect during this period,'" the notice stated

"The IMM requests that market participants carefully consider their behavior and not engage in manipulative behavior," the notice stated