Sub-zero temperatures from Toledo to Tennessee pushed PJM to its limits last week as the RTO overcame the loss of nearly 40,000 MW of generation during an arctic blast that set a new winter demand record.

PJM is adding more items to the to-do list resulting from the September heat wave, during which officials ordered limited load sheds to prevent a wider transmission collapse.

Below is a summary of 11 new recommendations resulting from PJM’s final report on the September 2013 heat wave. This is in addition to 11 recommendations made immediately after the events of Sept. 9-11.

PJM overcame the loss of nearly 40,000 MW of generation yesterday, keeping the lights on in the second day of an arctic blast that set a new winter demand record.

PJM operators dispatched demand response this morning after cutting voltages and calling on spinning reserves last night as frigid temperatures stressed generators and created record loads across the RTO.

PJM’s assessment for the 2013-14 winter months identified no reliability issues.

Last month's GridEX II security drill was a valuable test of PJM’s emergency response procedures but lacked in realism, participants said.

Combined cycle generators’ performance in providing Tier 2 synchronized reserve has fallen by half since 2008.

Retrofits and other planned outages will make it challenging to maintain reserve margins in 2014 and 2015 and PJM will likely need to reschedule some outage requests as a result.

Gas pipeline operators can exchange non-public operational information with PJM and other RTOs under a final rule approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.