[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 65 (Thursday, April 4, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13283-13284]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-06591]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD10-12-010]


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

    Take notice that Commission staff will convene a technical 
conference on June 25, 26, and 27, 2019 to discuss opportunities for 
increasing real-time and day-ahead market efficiency and enhancing the 
resilience of the bulk power system through improved software. A 
detailed agenda with the list of and times for the selected speakers 
will be published on the Commission's website \1\ after May 13, 2019.
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    \1\ http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/market-planning.asp.
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    Staff has held similar conferences in this proceeding in the past 
few years, all focused on enhancing market efficiency. The Commission 
last year initiated a proceeding in Docket No. AD18-7 to explore bulk 
power system resilience issues and expanded the scope of the 2018 
conference to include opportunities for enhancing resilience through 
improved software. As in past conferences, this conference will bring 
together experts from diverse backgrounds and experiences, including 
electric system operators, software developers, and those from 
government, research centers and academia for the purposes of 
stimulating discussion, sharing information, and identifying fruitful 
avenues for research concerning the technical aspects of improved 
software for increasing efficiency and resilience of the bulk power 
system.
    This conference is intended to build on the discussions initiated 
in the previous Commission staff technical conferences on increasing 
market and planning efficiency and for enhancing resilience through 
improved software. A number of the topics that have been discussed 
during previous conferences have relevance to resilience in addition to 
market efficiency. Staff will be facilitating a discussion to explore 
research and operational advances with respect to market modeling that 
appear to have significant promise for potential efficiency 
improvements. Given the priority the Commission places on resilience, 
presentations that also discuss research and operational advances that 
could enhance resilience of the bulk power system are encouraged. 
Broadly, such topics fall into the following categories:
    (1) Improvements to the representation of physical constraints that 
are either not currently modeled or currently modeled using 
mathematical approximations (e.g., voltage and reactive power 
constraints, stability constraints, fuel delivery constraints, and 
constraints related to contingencies);
    (2) Consideration of uncertainty to better maximize economic 
efficiency (expected market surplus) and better understand events that 
could impact resilience of the bulk power system, e.g.,

[[Page 13284]]

stochastic modeling or other improved modeling approaches to energy and 
reserve dispatch and system planning that efficiently manage 
uncertainty;
    (3) Improvements to the ability to identify and use flexibility in 
the existing systems in ways that improve bulk power system resilience 
and economic efficiency, e.g., optimal transmission switching, dynamic 
transmission ratings, transmission constraint relaxation practices, and 
ramp management;
    (4) Improvements to the duality interpretations of the economic 
dispatch model, with the goal of enabling the calculation of prices 
which represent better equilibrium and incentives for efficient entry 
and exit;
    (5) Limitations of current electricity market software due to its 
interaction with hardware, for example parallel computing and better 
cache management.
    (6) Other improvements in algorithms, model formulations, or 
hardware that may allow for increases in market efficiency and enhanced 
bulk power system resilience.
    Within these or related topics, we encourage presentations that 
discuss best modeling practices, existing modeling practices that need 
improvement, any advances made, or related perspectives on increasing 
market efficiency and resilience through improved power systems 
modeling.
    The technical conference will be held at the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission headquarters, 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 19, 2019 
through the Commission's website \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 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 http://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-24-19-speaker-form.asp.
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    Although registration is not required for general attendance by 
United States citizens, we encourage those planning to attend the 
conference to register through the Commission's website.\3\ We will 
provide nametags for those who register on or before June 14, 2019.
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    \3\ The registration form is located at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-25-19-form.asp.
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    We strongly encourage attendees who are not citizens of the United 
States to register for the conference by May 10, 2019, in order to 
avoid any delay associated with being processed by FERC security.
    The Commission will accept comments following the conference, with 
a deadline of July 31, 2019.
    There is an ``eSubscription'' link on the Commission's website 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 WebEx will be available. Off-site participants interested in 
listening via teleconference or listening and viewing the presentations 
through WebEx must register at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-26-18-form.asp, and do so by 5:00 p.m. EST 
on June 14, 2019. WebEx and teleconferencing may not be available to 
those who do not register.
    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]
Alexander Smith (Technical Information), Office of Energy Policy and 
Innovation, (202) 502-6601, [email protected]

    Dated: March 29, 2019.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-06591 Filed 4-3-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P