Western Interconnect Imbalance Energy Market Pathways

October 28-29, 2019 | Denver, CO ::

1019-western-interconnect

 

For the past half-decade or so, utilities, other load serving entities (LSE) and balancing areas in the Western Interconnect have been exploring options to improve their resilience, reliability and economic efficiency.  The drivers are several:

• Rising levels of variable and distributed energy resources on the grids and the difficulty of balancing variations in intermittent resource output
• Diminishing support for — and retirements of — certain types of fossil power plants
• Volatility in weather patterns that have periodically disrupted operations
• Need to economically implement more and smarter technology and infrastructure

In the intervening years, while a few constructs to address these requirements were under consideration, many power organizations have migrated to the California ISO (CAISO) energy imbalance market (EIM). This limited market services arrangement has proved less concerning to the operational autonomy of participating utilities than initially supposed.  Consequently, the landscape for additional market services offerings is adapting — both from the CAISO and from other independent system operators.  These developments are good news for utilities and balancing authorities not yet aligned with a regional resource-sharing market service, as they will now have multiple scenarios to evaluate.  And, even for entities that have already affiliated themselves, this may have implications as expanded elements come into play, such as a day-ahead market (DAM).

This program will examine the underlying “value proposition” that utilities, other load serving entities (LSEs) and balancing areas in the Western Interconnect must weigh as they consider the possibilities associated with improving their grid reliability, resiliency options and economic efficiency by participating in an energy imbalance market.  It will also provide the independent system operators that are offering these market services a neutral forum to showcase their related products and services, as well as the value proposition they are offering to participants.  A process will be described by which prospective market services participants can duly evaluate these options, along with how to navigate the transition from stand-alone to affiliated status.  A post-conference, optional forum will provide utilities, LSEs and balancing authorities the opportunity to view the software solutions that vendors are offering to support the implementation of these various market services platforms.

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Learning Outcomes  

Attendees at this symposium will:  

• Discuss the principles behind the formation of western energy imbalance markets and reliability coordination services
• Assess the solutions and value propositions of existing and emerging western energy imbalance markets and reliability coordination services offered by ISOs
• Examine what and how a utility or balancing area must properly evaluate to determine which western energy imbalance markets and reliability coordination services affiliation best aligns with its service area operating requirements
• Evaluate FERC, WECC and state regulatory commission perspectives and interface elements with western energy imbalance markets and reliability coordination services providers
• Identify the measures that utilities and balancing areas must implement to transition certain operations into western energy imbalance market and reliability coordination services structures
• Market participants’ perspectives on changes to their operations since participating in energy imbalance markets and what the new offerings portend

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 1.4 CEUs for this conference and 0.7 CEUs for the workshop.

 

Instructional Methods

PowerPoint presentations and test cases will be used to present course information.

Requirements for Successful Completion of Program

Participants must sign in/out each day and be in attendance for the entirety of the course to be eligible for continuing education credit.

Monday, October 28, 2019

8:00 – 8:30 a.m. :: Registration and Continental Breakfast 

8:30 – 8:45 a.m. :: Overview and Introductions

Conference Chair: Dan Lobue, President, Competitive Energy Consulting Inc.

8:45 – 10:00 a.m. :: I.
Addressing Reliability Resiliency and Economic Inefficiencies in the Western Interconnect

• • Frailties of operating in a bilateral-only resource sharing paradigm
  • Constructing a solution that..
    • Honors load commitments in the context of existing business and regulatory structures
    • Takes into account changes to the traditional resource portfolio and their accelerating displacement by VER resources with their radically different characteristics levels, thereby contributing to operational challenges and inefficiencies
    • Ensures system flexibility and resiliency as RPS mandates and carbon reduction measures become more stringent
  • Operations elements
    • Design that integrates system efficiencies with market design economies
    • Utilizes bid-based security constrained economic dispatch
    • Sufficiently addresses varying carbon policies by state, leakage, resource shuffling and border prices
  • Temporal value
    • Present
    • Over time
  • Why a utility/balancing area would want/need these services and their relevance
  • Why more important/relevant than ever
  • Progress to date…

Bill Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group

10:00 – 10:15 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. :: II.
Solutions and Value Propositions of the ISOs

• Description of fundamental functions and design features/ attributes of the 3 market models that have developed or are under consideration in the West
  • an energy imbalance real-time market (EIM)
  • an EIM plus a day-ahead market
  • a full RTO
• Describe market services product standard offering
• Describe market services product optional offering
• Stakeholder, planning, integration [and opt-out] process
• Governance structure
• Market services power mitigation and protection
• What ISO believes is differentiator(s) in its offering(s)
• Value proposition to market services participant
• Presenting a business plan for market services entry
• Other factors that ISO believes are important
• Coordination between multiple market operators and RC service providers
• RC ability to interface with market operator to optimize congestion management solutions

10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. :: California ISO (CAISO) EIM

Ellen Wolfe, President, Resero

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. :: Group Luncheon

1:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. :: Southwest Power Pool (SPP)

Philip Bruich, Director – Market Operations, SPP

2:45 – 3:00 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

3:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. :: PJM Interconnection (PJM)

Fran Barrett, Senior Director – Strategic Implementation & Change Management, PJM

4:45 – 5:15 p.m. :: Open Forum

5:15 p.m. :: Program Adjourns for Day

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

7:45 – 8:15 a.m. :: Continental Breakfast

8:15 – 10:00 a.m. :: III.
What and How a Utility/Balancing Authority Properly Evaluates the Affiliation Opportunities

• Key elements to consider in evaluations
• How to quantify the benefits and costs in order to verify the service offering
• Infrastructure deferral and/or other capital considerations
• Impact on shareholders (if IOU) or citizens (if POU)
• Leveraging current RC system/infrastructure to implement future-state market systems in an economic manner

Richard Tabors, Co-director – MIT Energy Initiative’s Utility of the Future Project and President, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich (TCR)

10:00 – 10:15 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. :: IV.
System Perspectives, Impacts and Requirements of Expanded Western Energy Market Services and Providers from Administrative and Oversight Agencies

• FERC
• WECC
• State Commissions and Legislatures

Layne Brown, Senior Reliability and Market Interface Specialist, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)

Robert Hellrich-Dawson, Senior Economist – Office of Energy Market Regulation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Erin O’Neill, Chief of Economists, Colorado Public Utility Commission

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. :: Group Luncheon

1:00 – 2:30 p.m. :: V.
How a Utility/Balancing Authority Successfully Implements a Transition

• Preparing for success
  • Market leaders’ approach to implementation and live operations
  • Three “pillars of success”
    • People
    • Process
    • Systems
  • Lessons learned from prior implementations that can inform market participants going forward
• Defining a market participation strategy
• Measuring performance

Dan Lobue, President, Competitive Energy Consulting Inc.

2:30 – 2:45 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

2:45 – 4:00 p.m. :: VI.
Utility/Balancing Authority and Market Participants’ Perspectives on Economic Energy Market Coordination

John Flory, Senior Vice President, eSmart Systems

Scott Martin, Director – Resource & New Business Strategy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Mike Boughner, Director – Gas Supply and Market Operations, Xcel Energy

4:00 p.m. :: Conference Adjourns

Market Services Solutions Options

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Overview

Success of the energy imbalance market structure is derived from the market operator’s ability to use technology and automation for grid stabilization to compensate for the onslaught of variable and intermittent resources now flowing into the system.  By centrally dispatching a large number of resources more economically across multiple balancing authorities than can occur through the more traditional approach of standalone bi-lateral transactions, the energy imbalance market can defer sizable infrastructure upgrades system-wide and simultaneously deliver financial benefits to the individual market participants in exchange for their willingness to pool resources.  In fewer words, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.

For most entities — especially those new to market paradigms — preparing for EIM integration and participation can be overwhelming.  While an EIM structure does pose a lower barrier to entry than full RTO/ISO market platforms, participants still require state-of-the-art software and sophisticated process automation measures to ensure their transactional success.    The prerequisite to select this energy imbalance transactional software before any meaningful market experience is obtained often proves a daunting task.

This workshop offers an unprecedented opportunity for entities both 1) contemplating entering an EIM market and 2) those already operating in an EIM structure to review the technical expectations and best technical solutions available today for market participation.  There will be an objective discussion of requirements for generation bidding, scheduling, operating, settling, invoicing and reporting.   This transparent presentation on best practices will be followed by demonstrations from vendors, who will present their proprietary solutions for the major required energy imbalance market services functions.

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss needs for technical solutions and process automation to accommodate shear volumes of data that must be exchanged and timeliness of submissions
• Examine how tools are used to manage and produce balanced schedules between interchange, load forecast and generation
• Assess capabilities for efficient transitioning from DA, to pre-Real Time scheduling, to Real Time balancing
• Evaluate how software can be used to reduce production costs, enhance reliability and integrate more renewable generation
• Demonstrate the automated submission of outages, balanced schedules and generation offers
• Review the process to optimize its base schedules and create generation offers
• Identify how to download awards and gather and submit meter data used in settlements
• Arrange, run and automate the Shadow settlement process — validating settlement statement through charge codes and billing determinants — using an efficient manage-by-exception process
• Demonstrate the allocation of data to sub-participants of BA
• Illustrate how to validate EIM Invoices, dispute charges and issue third party invoices
• Apply and view confirmation of all required data successfully uploaded to and downloaded from EIM operator

Workshop Agenda 

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

7:45 – 8:15 a.m. :: Registration and Continental Breakfast 

8:15 – 8:30 a.m. :: Overview and Introductions 

8:30 – 10:15 a.m. :: Survey of Energy Imbalance Market Platform Requirements

• Generation bidding
• 3-Part balanced schedules
• Interchange, load forecast and generation
• Meter data management
• Shadow settling and EIM invoice validation
• Third-party invoicing
• Reporting

10:15 – 10:30 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. :: Hartigen Solution Platform

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. :: Group Luncheon

1:00 – 2:30 p.m. :: PCI Solution Platform

2:30 – 2:45 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

2:45 – 4:15 p.m. :: Power Settlements Solution Platform 

4:15 p.m. :: Workshop Adjourns

 

Instructors  

Dan Lobue, President, Competitive Energy Consulting Inc.

Dan LoBue is President of Competitive Energy  Consulting Inc.  He is a subject matter expert with more than 30 years’ experience in power markets, holding both senior management positions at market participating companies and as a consultant in the electric industry.  As a corporate employee, he has held positions in generation, transmission, regulatory and commercial operations, specifically in trading and origination. As a consultant, he specializes in advising and providing solutions to decision-makers looking to improve margins and reduce expenses in electricity markets through the application of adept knowledge of the market rules, regulations, risks and use of time proven systems and processes.  Mr. Lobue works on behalf of market participants in MISO, SPP, PJM, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO. He was the lead consultant for the MISO South / Entergy integration, assisting Entergy, MISO and many of the other embedded companies to successfully transition and integrate into the market on time. Post-market integration activities have included proving solutions to improve market performance and reduce P&L leakage.

Power Costs Inc (PCI)

Khai Le, Senior Vice President   

Khai Le is Senior Vice President of PCI, a supplier of power portfolio optimization software for power generation and trading companies.  Over the past 42 years, he has conducted over 700 seminars on market-based operations, bidding strategies, portfolio optimization, and shadow settlement for utilities and ISOs worldwide. He is currently working with market participants in CAISO, MISO, SPP, PJM, ISO-NE, and ERCOT to automate their bid-to-bill, portfolio-optimization, ETRM, and BA-operations workflows.    Mr. Le has authored more than 100 technical papers on unit commitment, hydro-thermal coordination, emission dispatch, optimization of ancillary services, post analysis, and short-term planning.  He received his BS from Harvey Mudd College and his MS from Carnegie Mellon University.  Mr. Le is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Justin Shearer, Director

Justin Shearer is a director at Power Costs Inc (PCI), joining the team in 2013. He initially analyzed and developed settlements solutions, subsequently assuming the role of product ownership management for the company’s CAISO EIM solution. In this role, he has participated in helping all PCI EIM clients successfully enter that market. Approximately two years ago Mr. Shearer began working in PCI’s Solution Management division that helps clients actively apply PCI solutions to meet clients’ ever-changing needs. Before joining PCI, Mr. Shearer was a quality assurance team lead for a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and a security class actions analyst for a leading financial services firm. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Language from University of Oklahoma. He then received his MBA with a focus in MIS and supply chain management from the Price School of Business at the University of Oklahoma.

Hartigen

David Potts, President

David has been exceeding client expectations by delivering high-quality consulting and software solutions for more than 22 years. For the last 15 years David has focused on deregulated power markets and is a recognized subject matter expert across several ISO/RTO markets.  David’s passion is to be the driving force behind improving and creating new solutions while working intimately with the customer and stakeholders throughout the process. David has demonstrated this passion with distinction in the many roles he has executed in the areas of software, consulting, client support, sales & account management.

Michael Canto, Product Manager

Michael Canto is Product Manager at Hartigen Solutions.  He has been with the firm since 2012.  Mr. Canto works exclusively on settlement implementations of company’s software and custom reporting solutions for clients.  He has extensive knowledge of North American RTO Settlements and has been in the RTO/ISO Settlement space for over a decade.  He has managed multi-faceted settlement teams across SPP, PJM, MISO, & CAISO and his specialties include after-the-fact analysis, settlement and accounting, process optimization, and reporting structures.  Mr. Canto received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Florida.

Power Settlements Inc

David Dan, President and CEO

David Dan founded Power Settlements Consulting and Software, LLC in 2007, and as president is responsible for setting Power Settlements’ strategic objectives and executing the expansion of the Power Settlements’ bid-to-bill, visual analytics, and energy trading and risk management product lines. He is responsible for designing the business functionality in all of the company’s modules for the western power markets. Prior to starting Power Settlements, Mr. Dan worked at various consulting firms including Deloitte & Touché, where he consulted for many of the ISO participants, including investor owned utilities, independent generators, power marketers, and municipalities. He first started his career in the ISO/RTO space when he joined the California Power Exchange in 1998, where he was a senior settlement analyst, led the dispute group, and trained market participants on validating their ISO settlement statement charges.

Conference Chair: Dan Lobue, President, Competitive Energy Consulting Inc.

Fran Barrett, Senior Director – Strategic Implementation and Change Management, PJM Interconnection (PJM)

Mike Boughner, Director – Gas Supply and Market Operations, Xcel Energy

Philip Bruich, Director – Market Operations, SPP

Layne Brown, Senior Reliability and Market Interface Specialist, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)

John Flory, Senior Vice President, eSmart Systems

Robert Hellrich-Dawson, Senior Economist – Office of Energy Market Regulation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Bill Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group

Scott Martin, Director – Resource & New Business Strategy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Erin O’Neill, Chief of Economists, Colorado Public Utility Commission

Richard Tabors, Co-director – MIT Energy Initiative’s Utility of the Future Project and President, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich (TCR)

Ellen Wolfe, President, Resero Consulting

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Western Interconnect Imbalance Energy Market Pathways

October 28-29, 2019 | Denver, CO

Buy 4 in-person seats and only pay for 3! For this event every fourth in-person attendee is free!

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before September 27, 2019 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800

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