CARMEL, Ind. — Barring a FERC denial, MISO says it will begin sharing gas usage profiles of gas-fired generators with three natural gas pipeline owners before winter as part of a pilot program aimed at improving reliability.

Mark Thomas, MISO manager of gas-electric coordination, said the RTO will offer day-ahead hourly usage profiles to Northern Natural Gas, ANR Pipeline and DTE Energy in an effort to ensure adequate fuel supplies for gas-fired generators.

MISO filed with FERC last month for approval to share hourly burn estimates with select gas operators (ER17-1556).

The RTO doesn’t have a fixed target date to begin sharing the profiles, but staff would like to begin before winter hits and gas usage spikes, Thomas said during the June 1 Reliability Subcommittee meeting. MISO will await FERC approval before sharing any data.

Thomas stressed that MISO will only communicate aggregated data, but he also said sharing nonpublic operational information is “consistent with FERC Order 787.” He added that the RTO will “execute nondisclosure agreements and notify gas pipelines and utilities of existing FERC rules which enforce protection of nonpublic information.”

In April, some stakeholders voiced reservations about the pilot, saying the sharing of estimated day-ahead data could harm reliability if gas operators begin to make burn rate decisions relying solely on partial data. (See MISO Stakeholders Question Electric-Gas Info Sharing.)

Work Group Produces MISO Resilient Operations Plan

MISO is putting emphasis on resilient operations in the response to stepped-up NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection standards.

Kim Sperry, liaison to the Resilient Operations Work Group (ROWG), presented the RSC with a work plan outlining short-term reliability goals . In one to two years, MISO wants to establish better threat procedures for areas under greater risk for outages and work with local balancing authorities to specify alternatives for balancing during extended outages. She said that the ROWG will submit the balancing authority resiliency topics to the Steering Committee for issues assignment.

By 2019, the RTO also hopes to automate the entry of large volumes of data and identify alternative methods of communications when traditional means are not functional, Sperry said.

MISO’s outage restoration plans will focus on “black sky” outage situations — larger regional outages that last considerably longer than average operational or weather outages, she said.

The work plan also states that in two to five years, MISO will expand training on high-impact, low-probability events. Ongoing resiliency efforts expected to last beyond five years include cybersecurity improvements and gas-electric coordination, Sperry said.

MISO: Frequency Response Modeling Needs Work

MISO has performed a review of its reliability modeling in order to study the decline in its frequency response capability. One result: The RTO has learned there’s room to improve its dynamics modeling, according to Resource Adequacy Manager Durgesh Manjure.

Preliminary results show that seven of MISO’s 35 local balancing authorities contain generators that do not appear in the dynamics model, accounting for about 1% of generation, Manjure said. In addition, 31 local balancing authorities contain generators that do have governors appearing in the model, totaling 25%. Dynamics modeling, along with power flow modeling, is a key component of the RTO’s transmission planning.

Manjure said MISO will reach out to individual generators to confirm the absence of equipment or determine if the RTO is overlooking the equipment in its modeling inventory.

“This is a very preliminary review,” Manjure said. “We’re trying to get to a point where our models are useful.”

MISO earlier this year committed to studying its deteriorating frequency response and will later this year review performance based on collected data and compare results to actual events. (See MISO Begins Study on Declining Frequency Response.)

MISO’s Steve Swan shared the frequency response statistics supplied to NERC. Frequency response averaged -563.30 MW/0.1 Hz in 2014, -477.39 MW/0.1 Hz in 2015 and -336.30 MW/0.1 Hz in 2016. MISO’s current frequency response obligation under NERC’s frequency response reliability standard (BAL-003-1) is -211 MW/0.1 Hz.

“We’re getting to a point where this is real and our margin isn’t as big as it was a few years ago,” RSC Chair Tony Jankowski said. “I think we need to keep this a focus. It’s getting risky.”

Manjure also said MISO cannot use frequency measurements from supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software for study data as originally hoped because the measurements aren’t produced quickly enough, despite the ability for SCADA to produce one measurement every four seconds. He said the RTO is investigating other means of data collection.

MISO Says Solar Eclipse No Big Deal; Energy Storage Meeting Planned

This summer’s total solar eclipse will not threaten MISO’s operations, but it can provide lessons for the future, according to RTO staff.

“It does cross through MISO’s footprint, but it’s not expected to be a significant reliability event,” RSC liaison Mike McMullen said.

Solar installations from Oregon to North Carolina will be in the path of the Aug. 21 eclipse, and portions of Illinois within MISO will be affected, McMullen said, adding that the RTO will monitor distributed energy resources during the event. He said this eclipse can serve as a learning experience in preparation for the next total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, when he expects there to be greater solar penetration in the footprint.

“Certainly, we’ll see changes to the system between now and then,” he said.

McMullen also noted that MISO has set a tentative date of July 24 to hold a common issue meeting on energy storage.

At the April Steering Committee meeting, Consumers Energy, DTE Energy, Ameren, Xcel Energy and Indianapolis Power and Light, which all own storage resources, submitted a joint request that MISO create a model for storage’s participation in the market and track its growth using the RTO’s Market Roadmap list of market revisions. Staff also said a task team dedicated to energy storage could follow the common issues meeting. (See MISO’s Next Step on Storage: ‘Common Issues’; Task Team?)

MISO Ends Manitoba Hydro Reserve Support

MISO successfully carried Manitoba Hydro’s usual contingency reserves throughout May during the utility’s spring maintenance outages, Swan reported.

Swan said three separate contingency events occurred during the month while MISO cleared the utility’s 150-MW share of contingency reserves. The RTO stopped carrying Manitoba’s reserves May 29, when the Canadian utility’s dams returned from the outages that reduced its transfer capability. (See MISO to Make Up Manitoba Hydro Reserves During Spring Outages.)

— Amanda Durish Cook