[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 228 (Wednesday, November 26, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70526-70527]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-28022]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD14-14-000]


Price Formation in Energy and Ancillary Services Markets Operated 
by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System 
Operators; Supplemental Notice of Workshop on Operator Actions in RTO 
and ISO Markets

    As announced in a Notice issued on October 10, 2014, the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) will hold a workshop on 
Tuesday, December 9, 2014, to commence a discussion with industry on 
operator actions in energy and ancillary service markets operated by 
the Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System 
Operators. The workshop will commence at 8:45 a.m. and conclude at 4:30 
p.m. and will be held at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426. This workshop is free of charge 
and open to the public. Commission members may participate in the 
workshop.
    The agenda and a list of participants for this workshop are 
attached. Those who plan to attend the workshop are encouraged to 
complete the registration form located at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/12-09-14-form.asp. There is no registration deadline.
    The workshop will be transcribed. Transcripts of the workshop will 
be available for a fee from Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. (202-347-3700 
or 1-800-336-6646). Additionally, there will be a free webcast of the 
workshop. The webcast will allow persons to listen to the workshop but 
not participate. Anyone with Internet access who wants to listen to the 
workshop can do so by navigating to the Calendar of Events at 
www.ferc.gov, locating the technical workshop in the Calendar, and 
clicking on the webcast link. The Capitol Connection provides technical 
support for the webcast and offers the option of listening to the 
meeting via phone-bridge for a fee. If you have any questions, visit 
www.CapitolConnection.org or call 703-993-3100.
    While this workshop is not for the purpose of discussing specific 
cases, the workshop may address matters at issue in the following 
Commission proceedings that are pending: Cal. Indep. Sys. Operator 
Corp., Docket Nos. ER15-50 and ER15-402; Calpine Energy Serv., L.P., 
Docket No. ER15-376; Duke Energy Corp. v. PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., 
Docket No. EL14-45; FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. v. PJM Interconnection, 
L.L.C., Docket No. EL13-47; Indicated Load-Serving Entities v. 
Midcontinent Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., Docket No. EL13-
75; ISO New England, Inc., Docket No. ER15-257; Midcontinent Indep. 
Sys. Operator, Inc., Docket Nos. ER14-1736 and ER14-2445; Midcontinent 
Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc. v. Sw. Power Pool, Inc., Docket No. EL14-30; 
Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., Docket No. EL11-34; N. 
Ind. Pub. Serv. Co. v. Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., Docket 
No. EL13-88; Old Dominion Elec. Coop., Docket No. ER14-2242; PJM 
Interconnection, L.L.C., Docket Nos. EL13-95, ER14-1144, ER14-1145, and 
ER14-2705; Sw. Power Pool, Inc., Docket Nos. ER12-1179, ER14-1174, 
ER14-2399, and ER14-2850; and Sw. Power Pool, Inc. v. Midcontinent 
Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., Docket No. EL14-21.
    Commission workshops 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 requested accommodations.
    For more information about the workshop, please contact: Logistical 
Information, Sarah McKinley, Office of External Affairs, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, 
(202) 502-8368, [email protected]. Technical Information, Emma 
Nicholson, Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, 
(202) 502-8846, [email protected].

    Dated: November 20, 2014.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN26NO14.009

Price Formation in Energy and Ancillary Services Markets Operated by 
Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators

Operator Actions

Docket No. AD14-14-000

December 9, 2014

Agenda

    On December 9, 2014, a third and final workshop in this docket will 
be held to address matters of price formation in the energy and 
ancillary services markets administered by the Regional Transmission 
Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs).\1\ The 
workshop will focus on operator actions that affect price formation.
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    \1\ Price Formation in Energy and Ancillary Services Markets 
Operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent 
System Operators, Notice of Workshop, Docket No. AD14-14-000 (Oct. 
10, 2014).

8:45 a.m.-9:00 a.m.--Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.--Panel 1: Operator Actions in RTOs and ISOs (with 
a 15-minute break)

    Panel 1 will address the nature of operator-initiated out-of-market 
resource commitments and operator adjustments to market inputs. 
Recognizing that the current state-of-the-art computational tools do 
not allow unit commitment and economic dispatch algorithms to consider 
all relevant system constraints, panelists will be asked to discuss 
whether and how to incorporate otherwise un-modeled constraints (e.g., 
voltage constraints) into the unit commitment and economic dispatch 
processes. Topics will include: the extent to which un-modeled 
constraints require operator actions outside of the market; how 
operators (and market designers) consider which constraints to model; 
under what circumstances unit commitment decisions should be made as 
part of the day ahead or real-time market, or as part of the residual 
unit commitment process; and, when making commitments as part of the 
market processes, under what circumstances such commitments should be 
reflected in energy and ancillary services prices. Panelists will also 
be asked about the types of information that the RTOs and ISOs 
currently release publicly about operator actions, including the 
granularity and timing of such information. Panelists will be asked to 
discuss current or recent RTO and ISO efforts to improve the price 
formation process as it relates to un-priced or

[[Page 70527]]

otherwise out-of-market operator actions.
    Panelists:

 Peter Brandien, ISO New England Inc.
 Mark Rothleder, California Independent System Operator 
Corporation
 Jeff Bladen, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
 Wes Yeomans, New York Independent System Operator, Inc.
 Adam Keech, PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
 Sam Ellis, Southwest Power Pool, Inc.

12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m.--Lunch
1:15 p.m.-2:45 p.m.--Panel 2: Experience with Operator Actions

    Panel 2 will focus on the experience market participants have with 
out-of-market operator actions. In particular, this panel will explore 
the extent to which panelists believe such operator actions affect the 
operation and revenues/costs of market participants that own generation 
assets and serve load. Panelists will be asked to provide specific 
examples, based on their experience, of operator actions that they 
believe have negatively impacted the price formation process. To the 
extent possible, panelists will be asked to discuss differences among 
the approaches taken by the RTOs and ISOs to incorporate otherwise un-
modeled constraints into the unit commitment and economic dispatch 
processes. Panelists will also be asked to comment on the information 
that would be most helpful to them in understanding why resources are 
committed for reasons other than economics and how those commitments 
affect prices and make-whole charges. Finally, panelists will be asked 
for their recommendations to improve the price formation process.
    Panelists:

 Andrew Hartshorn, NRG/Boston Energy Trading & Marketing
 Michael Schnitzer, NorthBridge Group, speaking on behalf of 
Entergy Nuclear Power Marketing, LLC
 Michael Evans, Shell Energy North America (U.S.), L.P.
 Edward Tatum, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative
 John A. Anderson, Electricity Consumers Resource Council 
(ELCON)
 Steve Wofford, Exelon Corporation
 Tom Kaslow, GDF SUEZ Energy North America, Inc
 Mark Smith, Calpine Corporation
 Joel Gordon, PSEG.
3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.--Panel 3: Options to Reduce the Market Impacts of 
Operator Actions

    Panel 3 will focus on practices that RTOs and ISOs have adopted, 
plan to adopt, or might consider adopting to incorporate otherwise un-
modeled constraints (e.g., voltage constraints) into the unit 
commitment and economic dispatch processes. These practices include, 
but are not limited to: Pricing run enhancements to expand the types of 
resources that are eligible to set the clearing price for energy; 
adjustments to better align the market model with the physical 
operation of the system; transmission constraint relaxation; ramping 
products and reserve products that better reflect the costs of 
supplemental commitments operators might make to address uncertainty. 
Panelists will be asked to discuss the factors that influence the 
ability to adopt any of the above practices and to discuss the 
considerations made when choosing among these practices. Panelists will 
also be asked to discuss other options to better reflect currently un-
priced operator actions in market clearing prices.
    Panelists:

 David Patton, Potomac Economics
 Matthew White, ISO New England Inc.
 Andrew Hartshorn, NRG/Boston Energy Trading & Marketing
 Michael Schnitzer, NorthBridge Group, speaking on behalf of 
Entergy Nuclear Power Marketing, LLC
 Steve Wofford, Exelon Corporation
 Edward Tatum, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative
 John A. Anderson, ELCON

[FR Doc. 2014-28022 Filed 11-25-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P