By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO is asking stakeholders if they would like the RTO to provide generators an additional emergency notification declaring a maximum generation alert.

Manager of Unit Commitment and Dispatch Phil Van Schaack said MISO is considering creating a new capacity advisory or expanding its maximum generation criteria to include more conditions in order to provide market participants more advanced notice of possible emergency declarations for unit operators.

MISO was prompted to consider the move after forecasting possible emergency conditions for May 14 (a Monday) on May 11 (a Friday). The RTO ultimately declared an emergency alert just ahead of the weekend.

“Load, weather, very warm temperatures, outages made things very tight on May 14,” Van Schaack said at a May 31 Reliability Subcommittee meeting.

However, MISO terminated the maximum generation event May 13 as conditions changed.

The RTO said stakeholders were mixed in their reactions to the advanced alert.

Some stakeholders attending the RSC meeting questioned MISO calling conservative operations on a Friday for tight operating conditions on Monday. They said weather forecasts beyond 36 hours become unreliable and predicting load patterns so far in advance is an uncertain business.

But Van Schaack said this May was likely the RTO’s warmest on record, especially in MISO South. He predicted more emergency operating procedures over summer, in accord with the RTO’s official spring predictions. (See MISO: Summer Reserves Adequate, but Emergency Likely.)

“The footprint capacity margin is tighter, and we anticipate more emergency procedures,” Van Schaack said. He asked stakeholders if MISO should add a communication step “to improve awareness” prior to issuing a maximum generation alert.

Following emergency conditions during an extreme cold snap in January, multiple stakeholders asked the RTO to distribute more real-time electronic communication to its members when it faces near-emergency or emergency conditions. (See MISO Breaks down Recent Cold Snap.)

But some stakeholders at the meeting pointed out that declaration of a maximum generation alert might already pre-empt any plan to create an additional emergency notice, as an alert is issued before a maximum generation warning, which is followed by declaration of a maximum generation event when conditions worsen.

“To go into an alert, you do have to go into conservative operations. … We need to discuss the implications of more frequently going into conservation operations,” Van Schaack said, asking stakeholders to provide written feedback on an intermediary communication before a maximum generation alert. He also noted stakeholders could suggest MISO adopt no change to its emergency notice system.

Stakeholders pointed out that the RSC doesn’t hold another meeting until Aug. 2, which is likely to be well after the summer peak. Van Schaack responded that MISO would by then have more past alerts and emergency conditions to review and determine the best approach with stakeholders.

“Part of the reason we’re here is that it’s going to be hot in a few days. We’ll have a few opportunities to try things out,” Van Schaack said.

LMR Performance in January

MISO has concluded that it could improve its load-modifying resource performance after completing a detailed evaluation of the mid-January emergency, which identified issues with LMRs communicating their availability.

While the RTO requested 700 to 900 MW of LMRs throughout the emergency, it only received the requested amounts during five of the 10 hours of the emergency, with just 70% of LMRs that were called up by MISO meeting measurement and verification criteria. LMRs met scheduling instructions in 23 of 161 LMR interval hours, MISO said, while two LMRs missed instruction signals altogether. In total, the RTO assessed $123,000 in penalties to six market participants for underperformance, MISO Manager of Resource Adequacy John Harmon said.

Harmon said market participants continue to provide inaccurate LMR availability reports to MISO operators.

“There continues to be a trend of the load reduction availability in the MISO communication system not matching up with actual load reduction capability,” he said.

Vistra Energy’s Mark Volpe asked Harmon to give overall LMR performance during the event a letter grade.

“I’ll give it an elementary grade: ‘needs improvement,’” Harmon replied.

But Customized Energy Solutions’ Ted Kuhn asked the RTO to grade LMRs in terms of “how many megawatts were requested and how many were received,” not simply the “yes or no” of whether LMR volume was met in a specific hour.

MISO recently released a white paper documenting LMR characteristics in order to evaluate a growing reliance on LMRs in the footprint. The RTO concluded that it rarely sees the volume of LMRs that clear in the Planning Resource Auction made available in real time. The white paper recommended MISO take steps to:

• Increase awareness of when market participants voluntarily call on their LMRs;
• Ensure accurate reporting of LMR availability in the communication system;
• Consider price incentives for LMRs;
• Ensure MISO’s notifications are in tune with actual LMR need, with special attention on LMRs that require a 12-hour notification before responding to emergencies; and
• Contemplate mandatory LMR access outside summer, the only season that LMRs are required to respond to emergencies.

MISO relies on LMRs’ self-reported availability in the communication system in both summer and non-summer months.

Executive Director of Market Operations Jeff Bladen said the RTO will re-evaluate LMR rules and requirements as part of its larger effort to respond to changing resource availability. (See MISO Looks to Address Changing Resource Availability.) Bladen said “it may be true” that MISO could end up needing something more than LMR response to meet increasing regularity of emergency conditions.