NYISO CEO Rich Dewey told the Management Committee that the ISO will delay deployment of a new energy management system (EMS) and business management system (BMS), missing the Oct. 31 deadline rather than risk any reliability problems.
As reported to the committee in September, the last day of October was the latest the ISO could cut over to the new system and still issue a necessary System and Organization Controls report to stakeholders by the Jan. 15, 2020, deadline. (See “Parallel Testing of EMS/BMS,” NYISO Management Committee Briefs: Sept. 25, 2019.)
“We encountered a number of problems related to both stability and synchronization of data,” Dewey said. “We made the decision not to deploy the new software, but to deploy it as soon as possible in the new year. We’re extremely disappointed in missing this deadline but don’t doubt we made the right decision in order to have a fully reliable system.”
Chief Information Officer Doug Chapman reported at the last MC meeting that March 1, 2020, is the next available deployment date.
Dewey said NYISO will work aggressively to correct the remaining known issues, complete the integrated testing and position the system to deploy as early as possible in 2020. Among other factors in deciding the new target is the need to maintain schedule flexibility to avoid deploying the new system in the middle of a cold snap when the electric system is under stress.
Howard Fromer, director of market policy for PSEG Power New York, asked how, with a three-year project, it was possible to learn at the “11th hour” that the new system doesn’t work.
“We break the system functionality into chunks, and only after it passes those tests do we piece it all together as a complete system with the real telemetry and real-time data inputs,” Dewey said. He explained that some of the more recent issues could only be discovered while the more complicated scenarios were performed by the operations team.
The control center has had double shifts for the past few weeks, running both old and new systems side by side, and while the ISO is “satisfied with the standalone applications … we decided we were better off taking a little extra time with their integration,” Dewey said.
Public Policy Tx Cost Caps OK’d
The MC voted to recommend that the Board of Directors approve a plan to allow developers to put voluntary cost caps in their proposals for projects falling under the ISO’s public policy transmission planning process.
NYISO Senior Manager for Transmission Planning Yachi Lin presented the proposal as approved by the Business Issues Committee earlier in October with 98.91% in favor. It passed the MC with 100% in favor with abstentions. (See NYISO Business Issues Committee Briefs: Oct. 16, 2019.)
Contingent on the board approving the measure at its November meeting, the ISO is prepared to make a Federal Power Act Section 205 filing with FERC in December for revisions to sections 6.10, 31.1, 31.4, and 31.7 of the Tariff. The changes would provide developers of projects selected to meet public policy needs the opportunity to make binding commitments to limit the amount of the capital costs of their projects. The commitments would be enforced through the tariffs and development agreements that NYISO enters into with each developer. Certain categories of unpredictable capital costs, such as unforeseeable environmental contamination, would be excluded from the cost cap, or cost recovery would be allowed if an excusing condition occurs, such as delays caused by interconnecting transmission owners.
“The principle we are establishing in the Tariff is if there are actions truly beyond the control of the developer, they should be excused from the cap,” Assistant General Counsel Carl Patka said.
Asked about a hypothetical case where the developer’s partner is responsible for actions or inactions that lead to exemption from the cost cap, Patka said, “That would be a fact-specific inquiry that would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
Couch White attorney Amanda De Vito Trinsey, representing New York City, said that the city still continues to have concerns with the consumer protections but was withdrawing its opposition to the motion and abstaining from the vote, based on NYISO’s promise to police developer commitments and its Tariff to ensure that cost containment was being carried out as intended.
As at the BIC, Jane Quin, vice president of energy policy and regulatory affairs for Consolidated Edison, said her company and its Orange and Rockland Utilities subsidiary supported the concept but would also be abstaining because of concerns over changes to the evaluation process, which needs to include provisions for a TO to upgrade its own facilities.
Yes to Enhanced Credit Requirements
The MC also voted to recommend that the board approve changes to enhance credit reporting requirements and remedies.
Sheri Prevratil, manager of corporate credit, presented the proposal, including Tariff revisions that would require FERC approval, as she did earlier in the month when the BIC approved the changes.
NYISO proposed the changes after certain market participants last year defaulted on their payment or credit obligations. Some of those parties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while others were expelled from the ISO.
If the board approves the changes at its November meeting, NYISO will file Tariff revisions with FERC in November, Prevratil said.
The proposed Tariff changes add appropriate experience and resources to satisfy obligations to the ISO as minimum participation criteria. They also clarify that investigations that could have a material impact on the customer’s financial condition need to be reported to NYISO, if legally permitted, and add an obligation for a customer to take reasonable measures to obtain permission to disclose information on nonpublic investigations when possible.
A new provision allows NYISO to reject a new applicant determined to be an unreasonable credit risk based on a credit questionnaire and other review.
Survey Says: ISO Customers Happy
An annual customer satisfaction survey conducted by the Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) shows the ISO’s performance continuously increasing over the past four years.
SCRI Director Don Levy said a combined customer satisfaction and performance assessment score of 85.5% was the highest in four years, and that an executive approval score of 76% was better than it sounds, in that all respondents grade the ISO at better than “very good” in customer service.
Opportunities for improvement include conducting comprehensive long-term planning for the electric power system, advancing technological infrastructure and providing factual information to policymakers, stakeholders and investors.
2020 NYISO Budget
The MC approved a flat budget of $168 million for next year, which the board will consider at its Nov. 19 meeting.
Budget and Priorities Working Group Chair Alan Ackerman, of Customized Energy Solutions, presented the final budget proposal to the committee.
The working group made slight changes since he provided an overview last month, reflecting the delay in deploying the new EMS/BMS system, but the bottom line remains unchanged at $168 million allocated across a forecast of 154.3 million MWh.
The budget calls for a Rate Schedule 1 charge of $1.089/MWh. Comparatively, this year’s budget was $168.2 million allocated across 157.1 million MWh for a Rate Schedule 1 charge of $1.071/MWh.
Couch White attorney Michael Mager, who represents Multiple Intervenors, a coalition of large industrial, commercial and institutional energy customers, commended the ISO for working hard to deliver a conservative budget with no increase.
Breidenbaugh Elected New Vice Chair
Stakeholders elected Aaron Breidenbaugh of Luthin Associates as vice chair of the committee for 2020.
Breidenbaugh, whose firm also represents an unincorporated group of nonprofit institutional customers known as Consumer Power Advocates, has been serving as BIC chair this year.
— Michael Kuser