Alstom delivers innovative market management software for PJM Interconnection

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alstom Grid has recently implemented a new market management software system enabling the PJM Interconnection to more efficiently deploy fast-ramping energy resources in response to surging demand for electricity. This installation of Alstom’s upgraded e-terramarket platform also makes PJM compliant with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 755, which establishes a performance-based compensation system for sources of electricity that can be brought online quickly to ensure reliability.

“Ultimately, as the actual performance of frequency regulation providers better matches the amount of resources needed, the system should realize greater efficiency and savings.”

As North America’s largest wholesale energy market, PJM faces a growing challenge to ensure a constant flow of electricity in an environment where demand can fluctuate rapidly. Alstom’s recently-installed e-terramarket 3.0 software allows PJM to more efficiently call on energy resources such as battery and fly-wheel based storage systems ideally suited to providing a short-term boost in the supply of available electricity. Alstom Grid also delivered a new shortage pricing model for PJM that produces more accurate electricity prices when real-time operating reserves on the grid fall short of required levels.

“Grid operators need flexible, on-demand energy resources to respond to rapid shifts in the ways homes and businesses consume electricity,” said Karim El Naggar, Vice President and head of Alstom Grid’s Network Management Solutions business. “Alstom technology experts worked alongside the PJM team to ensure our system manages those resources as efficiently as possible, thereby achieving compliance with the requirements of Order 755.”

Benefits now available to PJM through e-terramarket 3.0 include built-in configurability for faster adaptation to regulatory requirements, a state-of-the-art security constrained optimization engine to ensure reliability, and cost savings through higher performance.

“This new performance-based market 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 the frequency regulation market,” said Andrew L. Ott, Senior Vice President – PJM Markets. “Ultimately, as the actual performance of frequency regulation providers better matches the amount of resources needed, the system should realize greater efficiency and savings.”

Earlier this year, Alstom Grid also delivered new functions for demand response compensation, enabling PJM to become the first Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) in the U.S. to comply with FERC’s Order 745, which addresses payments for demand response.

About PJM Interconnection

PJM manages the operation of the electric transmission grid across 13 states and the District of Columbia, which serves 60 million people. Alstom has provided PJM with market management technologies for over a decade, and delivered innovative market solutions including smart dispatch, settlements, and capacity markets that positioned them ideally for this latest implementation.

About Alstom

Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 92,000 people in around 100 countries. It had sales of €20 billion and booked close to €22 billion in orders in 2011/12.

Alstom Grid has over 100 years of expertise in electrical grids. Whether for utilities or electro-intensive industries or facilitating the trading of energy, Alstom Grid brings power to its customers’ projects. Alstom Grid ranks among the top 3 in electrical transmission sector with an annual sales turnover of more than €4 billion. It has 20,000 employees and over 90 manufacturing and engineering sites worldwide. At the heart of the development of Smart Grid, Alstom Grid offers products, services and integrated energy management solutions across the full energy value chain—from power generation, through transmission and distribution grids and to the large end user.