[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11068-11069]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-03795]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD10-12-011]


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 23, 24, and 25, 2020 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 22, 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/market-planning.asp.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Staff has held similar conferences in this proceeding in the past 
years, focused on enhancing market and planning efficiency and the 
resilience of the bulk power system. 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 those previous discussions. 
Staff will be facilitating discussions to explore research and 
operational advances with respect to market modeling that appear to 
have significant promise for potential efficiency or resilience 
improvements. 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., stochastic 
modeling, or other improved modeling approaches to energy and reserve 
dispatch and system planning that efficiently manage uncertainty;
    (3) Software related to grid-enhancing technologies, such as those 
described in the notices for Docket No. AD19-19, Grid-enhancing 
Technologies, and Docket No. AD19-15, Managing Transmission Line 
Ratings, including optimal transmission switching, dynamic line 
ratings, distributed energy resources, and software for forecasting and 
enhancing visibility into changing system conditions.
    (4) 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., transmission constraint relaxation 
practices, and ramp management;
    (5) 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;
    (6) Limitations of current electricity market software due to its 
interaction with hardware, for example, parallel computing and better 
cache management;
    (7) 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

[[Page 11069]]

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 17, 2020 
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-23-20-speaker-form.asp.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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 5, 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ The registration form is located at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/real-market-6-23-20-form.asp.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    We strongly encourage attendees who are not citizens of the United 
States to register for the conference by April 24, 2020, 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, 2020.
    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.
    WebEx streaming of this conference will be available. Off-site 
participants interested in listening via teleconference or listening 
and viewing the presentations through WebEx must register at by 5:00 
p.m. EST on June 12, 2020. 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: February 14, 2020.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-03795 Filed 2-25-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P