[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 62 (Friday, March 30, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19280-19281]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7643]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD10-12-003]


Increasing Market and Planning Efficiency Through Improved 
Software; Notice of Technical Conference: Increasing Real-Time and Day-
Ahead Market Efficiency Through Improved Software

    Take notice that Commission staff will convene a technical 
conference on June 25, 26, and 27, 2012 to discuss opportunities for 
increasing real-time and day-ahead market efficiency through improved 
software. A detailed agenda with the list of and times for the selected 
speakers will be published on the Commission's Increasing Market and 
Planning Efficiency Web site \1\ after May 14, 2012.
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    \1\ http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/market-planning.asp.
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    This conference will bring together diverse experts from ISOs/RTOs, 
non-market utilities, the software industry, government, research 
centers and academia for the purposes of stimulating discussion and 
sharing of information about the technical aspects of these issues and 
identifying fruitful avenues for research. This conference is intended 
to build on the discussions initiated in the Commission's June 2010 and 
June 2011 staff technical conferences on increasing market and planning 
efficiency through improved software.
    The conferences held in June 2010 and June 2011 produced 
presentations on several advanced approaches to market modeling which 
appear to have significant promise for potential efficiency 
improvements: Stochastic modeling; optimal transmission switching; AC 
optimal power flow modeling; and use of active and dynamic transmission 
ratings. Significant computational impediments to efficiently and 
reliably implement these approaches must be understood and overcome 
before benefits can be realized. In this conference, we seek to explore 
research and technical steps that would be needed to implement these 
and other advanced technologies in the future.
    In particular we solicit proposals for presentations on topics and 
questions such as the following:
    (1) Stochastic modeling for unit commitment and operating reserves: 
Given the difficulty in formulating and solving full-scale stochastic 
unit-commitment problems, what interim steps might be taken to more 
intelligently incorporate information about uncertainty into unit-
commitment and dispatch? Specifically:
    [ssquf] How can uncertainty be described in a manageable set of 
scenarios or constraints that improve unit-commitment and dispatch 
while allowing good solutions to be achieved in the required timeframe?
    [ssquf] If a stochastic unit-commitment model is used, how should 
day-ahead prices be calculated, given that the stochastic formulation 
no longer produces as part of its solution a single set of 
deterministic shadow prices for power at each location?
    [ssquf] How would a stochastic day-ahead unit commitment mechanism 
alter current market software for other processes (for example, 
reliability unit-commitment processes)?
    [ssquf] What steps toward better incorporation of uncertainty into 
unit-commitment might be taken over the next 5 to 10 years?
    [ssquf] What methods can be used to calculate requirements for 
contingency reserves and regulating reserves?
    [cir] How can reserves calculations more completely capture the 
uncertainty and variability of the system, including forecast error?
    [cir] How can outage probability be captured in contingency reserve

[[Page 19281]]

calculations, and how good is the available data?
    [cir] What methods can be used to determine reserve zones?
    (2) Optimal transmission switching:
    [ssquf] Simple optimal DC transmission switching appears to 
represent a potentially solvable technical problem using existing 
computational resources if transmission operators optimize only a small 
number of transmission switch positions. It is less clear whether 
transmission switching model formulations that include realistic 
representations of reliability requirements are solvable. What is the 
performance of these more complex model formulations?
    [ssquf] What additional computational impediments, if any, exist to 
implementing optimal transmission switching over a small number of 
switches while maintaining reliability?
    [ssquf] What steps toward optimal transmission switching might be 
taken over the next 5 to 10 years?
    (3) AC optimal power flow modeling:
    [ssquf] What is the current state of computational capability with 
respect to dependably solving AC optimal power flow problems, including 
analysis of power system reliability?
    [ssquf] Discussions during previous conferences have centered on 
concerns that current system data quality might not allow for an AC 
optimal power flow model to be properly formulated and solved. What are 
the specific data concerns, and what needs to be done to address them?
    [ssquf] What steps toward use of AC optimal power flow modeling 
might be taken over the next 5 to 10 years?
    (4) Adaptive and dynamic transmission ratings:
    [ssquf] Previous presentations examined the use of post-contingency 
analysis when determining transmission ratings, including consideration 
of availability of ramping capability. How can (or have) adaptive 
transmission ratings been implemented?
    [ssquf] Previous presentations also examined how transmission 
ratings might be updated in real time in response to ambient 
conditions. How have such dynamic transmission ratings been 
implemented?
    [ssquf] What are the data or computational challenges associated 
with implementing adaptive or dynamic transmission ratings?
    While the topics suggested above are largely forward-looking, we 
also encourage proposals for presentations on best practices and other 
analyses of current operations with respect to these and related 
topics.
    The technical conference will be held in the Commission Meeting 
Room at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20426. All interested participants are invited to 
attend, and participants with ideas for relevant presentations are 
invited to nominate themselves to speak at the conference.
    Speaker nominations must be submitted on or before April 27, 2012 
through the Commission's Web site \2\ by providing the proposed 
speaker's contact information along with a title, abstract, and list of 
contributing authors for the proposed presentation. Proposed 
presentations should be closely related to the topics discussed above. 
Speakers and presentations will be selected to ensure relevant topics 
and to accommodate time constraints.
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    \2\ The speaker nomination form is located at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-25-12-speaker-form.asp.
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    Although registration is not required for general attendance by 
U.S. citizens, we encourage those planning to attend the conference to 
register through the Commission's Web site.\3\ We will provide printed 
nametags for those who register on or before June 20, 2012.
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    \3\ The registration form is located at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-25-12-form.asp.
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    Due to new security procedures, we strongly encourage attendees who 
are not citizens of the United States to register for the conference by 
June 1, 2012, in order to avoid any delay associated with being 
processed by FERC security.
    Following the conferences, a comment date will be set for the 
filing of post-conference comments.
    There is an ``eSubscription'' link on the Web site that enables 
subscribers to receive email notification when a document is added to a 
subscribed docket(s). For assistance with any FERC Online service, 
please email [email protected], or call 866 208-3676 (toll 
free). For TTY, call 202 502-8659.
    A free webcast of this event will be available through the FERC Web 
site. Webcast viewers will not be able to participate during the 
technical conference. Anyone with Internet access interested in viewing 
the webcast of this conference can do so by navigating to Calendar of 
Events at www.ferc.gov. The events will contain a link to the webcast. 
The Capitol Connection provides technical support for the webcasts and 
offers the option of listening to the conferences via phone-bridge for 
a fee. If you have any questions, visit www.CapitolConnection.org or 
call (703) 993-3100.
    FERC conferences are accessible under section 508 of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For accessibility accommodations please 
send an email to [email protected] or call toll free (866) 208-
3372 (voice) or (202) 502-8659 (TTY), or send a fax to (202) 208-2106 
with the required accommodations.
    For further information about these conferences, please contact:

Sarah McKinley (Logistical Information), Office of External Affairs, 
(202) 502-8004, [email protected].
Brian Bak (Technical Information), Office of Energy Policy and 
Innovation, (202) 502-6574, [email protected].

    Dated: March 26, 2012.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-7643 Filed 3-29-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P