NYISO has suspended the sequestration of its control room operators but is in no hurry to bring its other staff back to ISO offices as New York begins its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Rich Dewey told the Management Committee on Wednesday.
The ISO ended sequestration for its Krey Boulevard control center operators on May 4 and that for Carman Road two weeks later, Dewey said. “We think we’re in a reasonable posture to suspend the sequestration of those staff members,” he said, adding that the ISO is prepared to resume sequestration if there is a resurgence of infections in the region.
For now, Carman Road staff are handling the day shift, with Krey Boulevard working nights.
Other NYISO staff are “almost exclusively” continuing to work from home while the ISO tracks the state’s reopening plans.
Although the ISO does have return-to-office plans, Dewey said it will be “conservative” in implementing them. “There’s no particular schedule for when we will start phasing people back into the office,” he said. With telework “working pretty well … we’re not going to be in a rush to change that posture.”
Dewey said the joint Board of Directors/Management Committee meeting scheduled for June 15-16 at the Sagamore Resort on Lake George has been converted to a virtual session. Like past in-person gatherings, the meetings will include both general sessions involving all attendees, and breakouts with individual board members and about 10 stakeholders.
“It’s very important for our board members to get feedback from market participants,” Dewey said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that the technology is quite capable. … We won’t have the normal social interaction, but we’ll do the best we can under the circumstances.”
The topics will include the “Grid in Transition” and “Navigating Uncharted Territory,” which will explore post-pandemic economic changes that may impact the sector.
Summer Capacity Assessment
NYISO’s baseline analysis shows a 1,721-MW capacity margin surplus for the summer peak in 2020, a drop of 506 MW from 2019, said Wes Yeomans, vice president of operations.
The 90th percentile forecast shows a 193-MW shortfall, a decrease of 616 MW from last year. Such extreme conditions might require the ISO to either tap its 2,620 MW of operating reserves or call on emergency operating procedures, including voltage reductions, emergency purchases and voluntary load reductions, for up to 3,080 MW.
The summer assessment shows 2,273 MW in generation deactivations, including the state’s last two coal-fired plants (the 155-MW Cayuga Unit 1 and the 655-MW Somerset plant) and the retirement of Unit 2 of the Indian Point nuclear plant (1,299 MW), which shut down at the end of April.
The ISO has one new generating asset, the 1,177-MW Cricket Valley combined cycle plant in Dover, N.Y.
60-minute Rule for Energy Storage
The Management Committee approved changes to section 4.4.3.1.1 of the Services Tariff to only award energy storage resources (ESRs) energy schedules that are sustainable for at least 60 minutes during a reserve pick-up (RPU) event.
The change was prompted by concern that during an RPU, real-time dispatch may award a larger energy schedule than an ESR can sustain for 60 minutes, as required by the Northeast Power Coordinating Council.
This can occur because the real-time dispatch/corrective action mode used to perform an RPU must issue updated schedules very quickly and thus only looks out 10 minutes.
