SPP staff told the Seams Steering Committee on Wednesday that they are evaluating internal procedures and improving situational awareness for its operators following a level 1 energy emergency alert in early August, the RTO’s first since it became a consolidated balancing authority in 2014.
The grid operator called the EEA on Aug. 6 when capacity losses, a “significant” load-forecast error and low wind production led to tight operating conditions. The final straw came at 1:30 p.m., when a 290-MW generator tripped offline.
Load came in 1,500 MW over forecast as temperatures were higher than expected. The system also lost 2,500 MW of capacity in unplanned outages.
The RTO was able to escape the situation by calling on 478 MW of grid-switchable resources in ERCOT and curtailing up to 127 MW of non-firm export capacity.
Operations engineer Ricky Finkbeiner noted SPP was able to avoid making emergency energy transactions, as MISO did in January 2018. (See Louisiana Regulators Question MISO South Max Gen Event.) The RTO had secured long-lead resource commitments ahead of time as part of its “uncertainty process.”
“The [reliability coordinators] were talking well before the afternoon it occurred,” Finkbeiner said.
Real-time prices spiked to nearly $1,500/MWh before non-firm exports were curtailed.
SPP, which had been operating under conservative operations since 9 a.m., issued the EEA 1 at 2:45 p.m. Load peaked at 49,389 MW at 4:24 p.m., with wind and solar energy making minimal contributions (1,553 MW and 140 MW, respectively). Wind production during the EEA was about 7% of its installed capacity.
The emergency event ended at 7 p.m.
The RTO has operated under conservative operations seven times during the summer because of generation outages, higher loads and subpar wind production.
Committee Questions Latest Joint Study with MISO
Following a third unsuccessful attempt by SPP and MISO to agree on joint transmission projects, committee members asked staff why a congested flowgate responsible for almost half of the market-to-market (M2M) settlements between the RTOs wasn’t more of a factor in the studies.
The Neosho-Riverton 161-kV flowgate in eastern Kansas has accumulated more than $29.3 million in M2M settlements to SPP since the RTOs began the process in March 2015. That is four times the next nearest flowgate and 45.6% of the overall M2M total.
Staff said the grid operators looked at 25 projects in the area but were unable to find enough benefits to justify a solution. Their latest attempt to determine joint projects ended this summer without success. (See MISO, SPP Empty-handed After 3rd Project Study.)
“It seems a lot of needs are showing, but you’re not finding projects,” said committee Chair Jim Jacoby, of American Electric Power. “Is it that there just isn’t enough [adjusted production costs] to justify? Are the calculations skewed?”
“The benefits just weren’t there,” Interregional Coordinator Adam Bell said. “SPP showed some good benefits, but MISO didn’t.”
Bell, who will soon leave his position for another in the organization, said modeling differences and how futures are weighed are the “likely culprits” for the inability to find joint projects. He said MISO uses four futures and three model years in its studies, while SPP uses two of each.
He also pointed out that M2M payments and APC are two different metrics. M2M payments capture the effect of market flows compared to firm flow entitlements, while APC captures the impact of pool-wide dispatch.
A recent upgrade to the Neosho-Riverton flowgate expanded its capacity by 20 MW, resulting in “considerably less” congestion this year, staff said.
“We would be remiss not to at least examine the issue,” the Missouri Public Service Commission’s Adam McKinnie said, suggesting it would be worthwhile to use avoided M2M payments as a benefit, as MISO does for targeted market efficiency projects.
“On the MISO-PJM seam, this project type looks at less expensive projects, requires payback over a short time period and has [been] shown to get results,” McKinnie said.
Bell said a final report on the RTOs’ 2019 Coordinated System Plan study will be included in the background materials for October’s Markets and Operations Policy Committee meeting. An advance copy will be shared with the SSC, he said.
July M2M Settlements Nearly Even Out
July resulted in the lowest M2M settlement between SPP and MISO since the RTOs began the process in March 2015, with the latter incurring $35,455 in M2M charges.
Permanent flowgates were binding for 227 hours and resulted in $753,755 in SPP’s favor. Temporary flowgates were binding for 323 hours, accounting for $718,300 in MISO’s favor.
SPP has accumulated more than $64.3 million in M2M settlements since 2015. The RTO has seen positive settlements in 39 of 53 months through July.
Jacoby Nominated to 2nd Term as Chair
Members nominated Jacoby to serve a second two-year term as the SSC chair. The term, which begins in January and expires December 2021, will be Jacoby’s second full term since succeeding Nebraska Public Power District’s Paul Malone in January 2017.
Jacoby’s nomination will now go before the Corporate Governance Committee for final approval.
The committee elected GridLiance’s Bary Warren to remain its vice chair. Both votes were unanimous.
Members also made their first change to the committee’s scope since 2016, adding that it will “seek opportunities to coordinate with neighboring stakeholder groups to address issues of common interest, such as market-to-market.” The CGC will have the final say on the scope change as well.
— Tom Kleckner
