By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO and its stakeholders will devote time to eight projects in 2018, including five-minute settlement calculations, external local resource zones and multiday energy market commitments.

The eight market improvements that MISO management selected from the annual Market Roadmap process were a smaller-than-usual crop of projects in order to make space for the RTO’s ongoing effort to replace its computer market system platform. MISO usually devotes time to about 20 market improvements per year.

“We are trying to significantly scale back, because a lot of resources are needed for the market system enhancement,” MISO Senior Manager of Market Strategy Mia Adams said during a Nov. 9 Market Subcommittee meeting.

In 2018, MISO and stakeholders will work to implement:

• FERC-mandated five-minute settlement calculations;
• Tighter thresholds on uninstructed deviations from dispatch instructions;
• Automatic generation control for fast-ramping resources;
• The designation of external resource zones in the annual capacity auction — a long-running agenda item at MISO’s Resource Adequacy Subcommittee meetings;
• Short-term capacity pricing and reliability standards so energy can be provided within 30 minutes when needed;
• Improved combined cycle modeling that can mimic more combinations of combined cycle units;
• A multiday energy market that would keep generators with long start-up times switched on for more than one day; and
• Rules to factor seasonal needs and risks into the capacity auction — a topic on which MISO is expected to release a white paper next month.

The 2018 work plan does not correspond with the final composite rankings of project importance by MISO, stakeholders and the Independent Market Monitor. For instance, devising a market resource definition for energy storage won top importance overall, but the effort is expected to remain in an idea-gathering stage in 2018. (See “Stakeholders Give Energy Storage Top Spot in Roadmap,” MISO Market Subcommittee Briefs: Aug. 10, 2017.) Other highly rated market projects, including automatic generation control, short-term capacity pricing, improved combined cycle modeling, seasonal consideration and a multiday energy market made the 2018 work plan but won’t be tackled in the order of their assigned importance. Four of the six of the top-rated projects originated from stakeholder requests; the other two came from the Monitor.

Automatic Generation Control Design Work Underway

‎MISO is currently working on a conceptual design for automatic generation control (AGC) software that will deploy its 400 MW of fast-ramping resources more quickly by regulating either up or down. MISO Executive Director of Market Design Jeff Bladen said the RTO is a year away from a final design stage. It hopes to implement AGC by late 2019.

Uninstructed Deviation

The RTO is nearing a final approach on stricter rules for uninstructed deviation.

Monitor David Patton has proposed a new deviation threshold based on a generator’s ramp rate instead of the current 8% deviation threshold from dispatch signals.

Last month, ‎Ameren Missouri urged MISO to keep the percentage threshold, saying it could be constricted to 7% or 6% over time. The company also asked MISO to only focus on generators that don’t move for an hour within dispatch instructions. (See Ameren Calls for Milder MISO Response to Uninstructed Deviations.) Since then, multiple stakeholders have voiced support for Ameren’s proposal.

Patton said his proposal will result in lower dispatch costs and day-ahead margin assistance payments. He also said the new calculation would save consumers money and result in better reliability.

“It’s surprising there’s not a vocal segment of the market behind this change,” Patton said. “I think asking generators to move at half of the rate they’ve offered with a 20-minute grace period is reasonable.” MISO and Patton will continue to refine an uninstructed deviation proposal in 2018.

MISO Asks for 5-Minute Settlement Delay

MISO will ask FERC for permission to delay the implementation date for its five-minute settlements for four months, Bladen confirmed. The RTO will ask for a July 1, 2018, effective date instead of the existing March 1 target in a filing expected within the next week. The extra time will be used for testing, and Bladen said MISO will let stakeholders know when different testing stages begin.

MISO is also moving back the go-live date on its new computer settlements system, aiming for early 2018 instead of a fourth-quarter implementation. The extra months will also be used for testing the new system.