CARMEL, Ind. — MISO told stakeholders last week it is confident the RTO’s shortage pricing rules are compliant with FERC’s Sept. 17 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (RM15-24).
The rule would trigger shortage pricing “for any dispatch interval when a shortage of energy or operating reserves occurs.”
MISO employs an operating reserve demand curve in its five-minute dispatch. Dhiman Chatterjee, senior manager of market design and delivery, told the Market Subcommittee he expects FERC’s final rule will align closely with what MISO already has in place.
“If they come back with some different opinions, it would affect us,” Chatterjee said, adding that MISO would make adjustments during the four-month compliance filing period before the final rule. Chatterjee said MISO “would potentially need more time” if FERC imposed something unexpected in their rule.
MISO will have to make changes, however, to comply with the NOPR’s requirement that organized markets settle real-time energy transactions financially at the same five-minute time interval that they use in issuing dispatch instructions. (See NOPR Requires RTOs Switch to 5-Minute Settlements.)
MISO told the committee the shift will require hardware, software and business process changes that could take until the fourth quarter of 2017 to complete.
FERC is accepting comments on the NOPR until Nov. 30. MISO is planning to submit its remarks around Nov. 18. Comments to help shape MISO’s response are due by Nov. 11.
$80 Million in SPP Invoices Voided in Settlement
Managing Assistant General Counsel Erin Murphy said SPP will cancel about $80 million in invoices sent to MISO as a result of the RTOs’ Oct. 13 settlement of their dispute over energy flows between MISO’s North and South regions.
“All of those invoices will be pulled back and considered to be null once the settlement is in place,” Murphy explained.
In an order Oct. 20, Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner Jr. approved the compensation and transfer limit provisions of the settlement, to begin on Feb. 1 (ER14-1174, et al.).
“Fundamentally, the notion of sharing capacity has stayed in the agreement,” Murphy told stakeholders.
Compensation for system usage will be based on capacity factor: available system capacity divided by the maximum available system capacity (the difference between the contract path and the operational limit).
Stakeholders asked for more clarity on what equations MISO uses to determine the capacity factor. Murphy suggested a special meeting to walk through computations used in the settlement’s manuals.
Initial comments on the settlement were due Nov. 2, with MISO’s reply comments due Nov. 12.
FERC: Commission Can Operate with 3 Members
Chris Miller, of FERC’s Office of Energy Market Regulation, told the committee that the commission could drop to three members if former Commissioner Philip Moeller is not replaced and lone Republican Commissioner Tony Clark is not reappointed when his five-year term expires at the end of June.
“We can operate down to three [commissioners] without too much difficulty, so that’s not a big issue there,” he said.
Miller also discussed the potential for a federal government shutdown. “We’re funded into December as it is right now,” he said.
On Nov. 2, President Obama signed into law a budget agreement and debt limit increase, reducing the chances of a shutdown. But Obama noted that Congress still has to enact appropriations bills before the continuing resolution funding fiscal 2016 government operations expires Dec. 11.
— Amanda Durish Cook
