MISO will not build an application programming interface (API) to provide five-minute schedule data to customers.

“MISO is not recommending to pursue this function at this time,” MISO’s Matt Schingle said during an April 5 Market Subcommittee meeting.

At the December MSC, Kansas City Power and Light requested creation of an API to retrieve market participants’ physical schedules from webTrans or the e-tag system.

Schingle said too few stakeholders wanted the change for it to be cost-effective. “This year, there’s not enough flex in the budget for this kind of cost,” he said. MISO’s vendor estimated the API would cost $150,000 to develop.

Schingle said the raw data is already available through customers’ internal market software, although MISO does not provide a function allowing customers to retrieve schedule profiles.

MISO Moves Ahead on PJM Coordinated Transaction Scheduling; Monitor Slams PJM Fees

MISO could begin publishing monthly price forecasts for MISO-PJM Coordinated Transaction Scheduling (CTS) as early as May 13, according to Beibei Li of MISO’s market evaluation and design team.

Designed to reduce uneconomic power flows, CTS will allow traders to submit bids that would clear only when the price difference between MISO and PJM exceeds a threshold set by the bidder.

Li said MISO expects to publish the final CTS price forecast report template by April 22 and is seeking MSC feedback by April 19.

Dave Johnston of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission asked if CTS transactions would be subject to uplift. Li said MISO did not believe that uplift charges would apply.

CTS came under criticism in a recent Independent Market Monitor quarterly report, with Monitor David Patton contending the program is currently “accomplishing very little” because of poor forecasting and fees imposed by PJM. Patton said PJM’s charges at the seams were similar to MISO’s revenue sufficiency guarantee payments.

While Patton said the Monitor supports MISO’s FERC filing to add CTS to its Tariff (ER16-533), his group filed comments asking the commission to require that PJM eliminate all uplift charges. MISO has already proposed excluding charges such as the revenue sufficiency guarantee and revenue neutrality uplift.

Patton said CTS is “much more liquid and effective” without uplift charges, as illustrated by trading across NYISO’s seams with ISO-NE and PJM.

“We’re hoping that FERC reads our filing and orders PJM to eliminate all charges,” he said.

The Monitor is also working with MISO and PJM to develop proposals for firm capacity delivery as an alternative to pseudo-tying resources to PJM, Patton said.

“I continue to be amazed that PJM thinks this pseudo-tie requirement is necessary,” he said. “They’re not thinking of what’s best for the Eastern Interconnect.”

MISO will pseudo-tie about 2,000 MW of new generation into PJM for the 2016/17 planning year and more than 2,500 MW during the next two planning cycles. Only 155 MW of new generation was pseudo-tied in the 2015/16 planning year.

Need for 30-Minute Reserve Product Questioned

MISO is revisiting the merits of developing a 30-minute reserve product despite stakeholder questions about the need for the requirement.

The RTO is reviving the idea because natural gas generators are being used increasingly as baseload resources, rather than just meeting peak demand.

MISO has assigned the project “medium” priority on its Market Roadmap, with evaluation expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter, according to Leonard Ashley of MISO’s market evaluation and design team. He said the project would emerge as a major market implementation if developed.

The 30-minute reserve product would be designed to respond to a large loss of generation within a constrained area, said Jeff Bladen, executive director of market design. He said the product was a “necessary evolution of market design” and could address systemwide reliability instead of local reliability.

Bill SeDoris, director of MISO integration for Northern Indiana Public Service Co., asked if the issue could be solved simply with use of an increased reserve requirement.

“That’s one way to do it,” MISO’s Kevin Larson responded. “I don’t think that’s the most economic way to do it.”

Bladen said the RTO’s initial assessment shows that creating a 30-minute reserve is less costly than carrying additional spinning reserves or regulation reserves.

Thomas Sikes of WPPI Energy asked if MISO could replicate its 2013 report that concluded a short-term reserve product was unnecessary.

Ashley said MISO is just beginning to evaluate the project, and conceptual design wouldn’t start until late this year.

“We didn’t mean to give the impression that the ship has been built and set sail. … We definitely haven’t made the decision that a 30-minute product is the way to go,” Ashley said.

FTR Working Group may be Absorbed by MSC

Brad Arnold, chair of the Financial Transmission Rights Working Group, said his group is considering merging with the Market Subcommittee due to light agendas and infrequent meetings. The group last met Jan. 8.

Arnold said the working group would meet to discuss possible 2016 initiatives and figure out if there are enough to justify the group’s existence.

MISO to Hold August Market Symposium

Bladen reported that MISO would hold a first-ever market symposium Aug. 18-19. Bladen said the symposium would center on two main themes: shifting environmental regulations (Day One) and the future of distributed resources (Day Two). He said the symposium will be “taking the temperature” of the industry by bringing in experts from around the country to speak.

Registration instructions will be posted sometime this week.

The MSC also approved the Seams Management Working Group’s largely unchanged charter.

— Amanda Durish Cook