The filing meets a requirement under FERC's Order 888 that power pools open their transmission systems to entities other than member electric utilities to move wholesale electricity.

All eight PJM member utilities supported the filing, although alternative language was proposed in some areas by PECO Energy and by the other members of the pool.

The Dec. 31 filing is not a revision of the comprehensive PJM restructuring plan that was sent to FERC last July, said John Sipics, PP&L's general manager of Power Systems Support.

"This is an interim proposal on open access that was developed through public meetings with marketers, brokers, municipal customers and others with an interest in using the PJM transmission network," Sipics said. "PJM intends to continue good faith negotiations with interested parties and file a more comprehensive restructuring plan later this spring."

Last November, FERC issued an order calling for major revisions to the PJM restructuring plan. As part of its ruling, the commission encouraged a single restructuring proposal agreed to by all the member companies and the development of a "truly independent" Independent System Operator. In the order, FERC offered the option for the pool to make an interim filing by the end of the year, recognizing that it would be difficult to get sufficient consensus around a comprehensive restructuring by that time.

An Independent System Operator, a key part of the comprehensive restructuring, is not part of the interim filing.

The open dialogue with all entities that could have a stake in the power pool to revise the restructuring proposal, which was begun in response to the FERC order, will continue until a new plan is filed later in the spring, Sipics said.

"It's our intention to work in a broad, participative way to develop a new plan," said Sipics, PP&L's representative to PJM's management committee. "There wasn't enough time by the end of the year to develop a new comprehensive plan. The plan that was filed is a working plan on open access."

To meet end of the year FERC deadlines, the New York Power Pool and the New England Power Pool, or NEPOOL, filed their first power pool restructuring plans Dec. 31. PJM was the first power pool to file a restructuring proposal when it did so in July 1996.