DALLAS — MISO’s Independent Market Monitor told the Board of Directors on March 19 the RTO must crack down on confirmations to prevent more phony demand response from infiltrating its markets.  

Monitor David Patton said penalties for the string of demand response schemes have eclipsed $100 million. FERC in February put the squeeze on an obscure, Texas-based LLC formed to sell in-car ketchup holders to the tune of $27 million for offering faux load reductions. It was the third time recently a company was caught manipulating MISO’s demand response market and collecting unjustified payments. (See FERC Catches Ketchup Caddy Co. in Another Fake DR Scheme in MISO.) 

“When you move demand to the supply side, there’s certain things you need to do … to validate the demand response is actually real,” Patton said during a Markets Committee of the MISO Board of Directors meeting. 

Patton said he’s working with MISO to “remove vulnerabilities” from its ruleset regarding DR registrations and validations. He said the RTO must dedicate more resources to authenticating DR capabilities.  

MISO directors discussed recent instances of apparent DR fraud in a nonpublic session following the MC meeting. No board members stated their opinions publicly on the scams during Board Week.  

WEC Energy Group’s Chris Plante suggested MISO’s Advisory Committee schedule a discussion on the Ketchup Caddy situation and where responsibility for authenticating demand response market participants ultimately lands.