The EIM will launch the most significant geographical expansion of the Western energy markets

The California ISO’s Energy Imbalance Market is Closer Than You Think!

With the CAISO FERC 764 market changes now in the rearview mirror, we can all draw a deep breath and look forward to the next big thing: the CAISO Energy Imbalance Market, aka the EIM. The EIM will launch the most significant geographical expansion of the Western energy markets since the launch of CAISO back in ’97.

Cal ISO looks to gain a more flexible portfolio of real time energy resources to augment the increasingly diverse, and increasingly renewable, resources within the state. External entities such as inaugural EIM participant PacifiCorp hope to gain added flexibility as well, including the ability to buy and sell energy in the real time energy markets and across area boundaries in a much more dynamic manner than in the past. The idea is that by increasing the overall fleet of available resources to (ideally) include much of the Western Interconnect, regional variations in load and generation will tend to cancel out across the area, keeping prices down and enhancing reliability. Many of the stakeholders will be watching this market launch very closely.

At EnDimensions, we have been tracking the evolution of the market structures and tariff provisions very closely. Having met the challenges of the FERC 764 changes with timely revisions to our EnSuite settlement and analytic products, we are now tooling up for a smooth transition to EIM! The EIM market will bring new requirements for scheduling and settlements, including new charges and changes to existing charges that our shadow settlement and analytics modules will respond to with aplomb. In addition, new EIM participants will find that the EnSuite Settlements products, together with expertise of our market experts, will provide for a clean and easy transition for those wishing to enter the market.

Modularity and Configurability Make for a Smooth FERC 764 Transition

As the driving force behind more than 40% of the energy transacted in the California ISO Markets, it was critical to PG&E to maintain the continuity and availability of their settlement and market analytic software through the transition to the FERC-Mandated Fifteen Minute market, or FMM. Fortunately, EnSuite by EnDimensions was built from the ground up with just such customers in mind.  EnSuite’s modular, configuration-driven design meant that the transition from 10-minute to 5-minute settlement intervals, the launch of six new charge codes and the revamp of CAISO’s market APIs was handled smoothly and without a major code redesign.

The transition was completed without a service outage and with minimal disruption to normal business processes. Shadow calculations for the new charge codes were implemented with an updated configuration pack, which implemented shadow calculations for the new charge codes and reconfigured the settlement interval from ten to five minutes.  APIs were updated similarly, with interfaces and data templates modified without a service interruption, while preserving backward compatibility for legacy data.

With the close of the FERC 764 upgrades, we now look forward to another smooth upgrade path in support of the Energy Imbalance Market (EIM), slated to launch in Fall of 2014. By planning and building for availability, flexibility and configurability, EnDimensions has created a product suite that handles 21st century energy markets in stride!

California ISO 2013 Stakeholder Symposium

California ISO 2013 Stakeholder Symposium Starts Wednesday!

Seems like only yesterday we were closing out the CAISO 2012 Symposium, and looking ahead to a year filled with change.  We were not disappointed.  California launched its greenhouse gas cap-and-trade market this year, renewable energy resources continued their steady build-out, generators that provide frequency control were suddenly getting paid for “mileage” and we are up to our elbows in the FERC 764 market upgrades.  Not coincidentally, seeing a Tesla Model S on the road in the Bay Area became too common to mention, as Tesla was the best selling luxury car in the area,   And on that note, let’s look forward into 2014 and speculate on what may be generating the buzz at CAISO Symposium 2013.

FERC 764.

The FERC 764 Market changes are scheduled to commence market trials in February 2014, a major change that will add a 15 minute market sandwiched between the Day Ahead and Real Time markets currently in operation.  CAISO projects a number of benefits from this change, including enhanced ability to manage imports of renewable energy and better alignment of pricing from day ahead through real time at the interties.

Renewable Energy

Some 2000 MW of new renewable energy resources entered commercial operation in 2012, with close to 3000 MW predicted for 2013.  This will continue to put pressure on flexible generating units to provide critical reliability services into the future, but we at EnDimensions are somewhat chastened in that the amount of new renewable generation in California has exceeded our expectations by about 30%.  The FERC 764 changes will help significantly to support imports of renewable energy but for system reliability, the Next Big Thing is EIM.

Energy Imbalance Market (EIM)

If all goes as planned, CAISO will launch the new Energy Imbalance Market in the Fall of 2014.  The EIM is a real time energy market that will expand the regional scope of the CAISO real time market to allow regions that opt-in to participate in a real time energy market.  Currently the EIM is a two-party deal between CAISO and PacifiCorp, but we expect to see participation across the Western interconnect if the initial launch is successful.  This market should work together with FERC 764 to reduce or eliminate barriers to pooling energy and reserves across the West, potentially aiding in renewable energy integration and reducing costs for all players.  Of course these changes will keep market participants on their toes to accommodate updates in policy, functionality and settlements.

Then of course there are initiatives afoot to encourage more investment in storage, better utilization of DR resources and other interesting topics to follow.  Come by and visit our booth at the symposium for a bit of chocolate and conversation!  Of course we are proud of our EnSuite settlements and analytics packages, so don’t be surprised if we show those off a bit as well.  See you on Wednesday!