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Enron Mail |
Cal-ISO: underscheduling caused grid failures
09/28/2000 Megawatt Daily © Copyright 2000 Pasha Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Under-scheduling of load on the part of California's utilities caused reliability problems in the state's electricity grid this summer, Ziad Alaywan, the managing director of engineering and support at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) said. Speaking at a Cal-ISO stakeholder meeting this week, Alaywan said Cal-ISO was forced to spend over $100 million in out-of-market purchases this summer in order to cover unscheduled load not purchased by the utilities in the day-ahead markets. A confluence of factors added up to create the emergency situations the Cal-ISO faced this summer, according to Alaywan. He cited arbitrage between the California Power Exchange (Cal PX) and Cal-ISO markets, a reliance on real-time (rather than day-ahead) markets and a general shortage of power supply in California as reasons why California's power grid was stretched to its limits this summer. According to figures presented by Alaywan, the instance of under-scheduling was some 50% higher this summer than in the two previous summers. This under-scheduling resulted in a total of 36 stage 1 and 2 emergencies between June 1 and August 15 and dictated that the ISO curtail 13,450 MW on 12 different occasions. In addition, the ISO spent $100,820,000 on out-of-market electricity purchases during that period, up from $790,000 the previous year. As a solution, Alaywan suggested increasing incentives to engage in forward scheduling of power and that supply be increased. The Cal-ISO has made a request for proposals for some 3000 MW for next summer to be used as a peaking management tool, as well as allotting $800 million for transmission upgrades over the next five years, Alaywan said. Elena Schmid, Cal-ISO's vice president of strategic development and communication, also speaking at the meeting cited insufficient generation, inadequate transmission, under-scheduling of load, a lack of price responsive demand, and the exercise of market power as market failures handicapping the ISO's smooth delivery of power. To combat these shortcomings, Jeanne Sole, in charge of long-term grid planning at the ISO, suggested that the ISO encourage expansion of the gird and the competitive provision of electricity for the California market. Changes must be made in the ISO and other entities involved in power transmission and regulation over the next 18 months to lessen the likelihood of such problems occurring in the future, the speakers said. ADP
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