MISO hopes to have a new demand-side management tool fully operational by July for its members to manage their load-modifying resource fleets.
The Demand Side Resource Interface application will replace the LMR availability reporting and scheduling instructions that are currently handled through the long-maligned MISO Communication System (MCS). Members have called the nonpublic interface outdated and difficult to navigate. Some have said that the system’s unclear instructions deserved partial blame when LMRs didn’t perform up to the RTO’s standards during maximum generation emergencies. (See MISO to Fix Communications System Shortcomings.)
The new application will allow MISO to cancel requests for LMRs and for LMR owners to acknowledge the grid operator’s canceled requests. It will also be able to conduct LMR deployment drills.
“Not only is it able to host the same functionality, it’s able to hold some enhancements as well,” MISO’s Jeffrey Minks told stakeholders during a Reliability Subcommittee on May 6.
Minks said while the application will initially handle only the LMRs’ management, it will eventually be used to supervise MISO’s emergency demand response and future demand-response services as demand-side management becomes more ubiquitous. In the meantime, the MCS will continue to report and deploy emergency demand response.
“The long-term vision is really to have a one-stop shop,” Minks said.
He said user testing and training will begin this month and he urged LMR owners to access the application and “kick the tires.”
MISO is also revamping its generation outage-scheduling interface for the first time in five years.
The updated Control Room Operations Window (CROW) will have more “stakeholder-focused features” that will allow members to more easily cancel or change outage requests, staff said.
