The operatives words seem to be ... Stage One provides authority to implement certain mitigating actions, outside of normal operating procedures, that the ISO may take to resolve the deficiency.
Mr (me)
You have described two separate responses to an operating reserve deficiency. One is a typical advisory message issued by one of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) Reliability Coordinators to all WECC Control Areas. The other is implementation of the ISO Electrical Emergency Plan. One does not require the other.
The message cited below is a typical advisory issued by the WECC's Reliability Coordinator on the WECC network to all other Control Areas when a reserve deficiency is identified. Responsibility for this message rests with the WECC. This message does not require the ISO to issue a Stage One Emergency notice.
The ISO issues a Stage One Emergency notice in accord with its own Electrical Emergency Plan. Stage One provides authority to implement certain mitigating actions, outside of normal operating procedures, that the ISO may take to resolve the deficiency. Because we receive schedules from all generators in the ISO Control Area, constantly monitor their output, maintain logs to identify their performance limitations and revise load forecasts several times each day, we are uniquely able to identify the necessity of these mitigating actions to correct an operating reserve deficiency. If they are deemed unnecessary to correct the problem, the ISO may not issue the notice.
I hope this helps clarify this for you.
Regards.
Mitchell Ford
Lead Operations Analyst
California Independent System Operator
I didn't like the response so I sent a follow-up set of questions. They are as follows:
Mr. Ford
Thank you. Unfortunately your message did not clarify things for me. Perhaps my second e-mail to Ms. McCorkle confused the matter by my reference to the WECC system summary. If that is the case, I apologize.
Specifically, ISO Procedure E-508C on page 3 of 8 defines the situations under which Stage 1 and Stage 2 Emergency Notices are to be issued. Under the procedure, it states that a Stage 2 Emergency Notice is to be given when reserves are "currently or forecast to be below 5%." To me the word "currently" implies that an instantaneous or relatively short term value is implied in the determination of reserves, not an hour long average value or multiple hour average, and especially not that things should be OK next hour. If the ISO has another meaning for the word "currently" I would appreciate learning its definition.
In your message you state, "Stage One provides authority to implement certain mitigating actions, outside of normal operating procedures, that the ISO may take to resolve the deficiency." This implies to me that what you are terming "...mitigating actions, outside of normal operating procedures..." means that the California ISO may not have been strictly following the procedures within E-508C as I read it. If that is the case, I would like to know more so that I can properly understand the California ISO procedures during such a critical time.
Yes, I recognize that the WECC is a different agency than the California ISO. In the past I have participated in WSCC meetings in Utah so I am aware that WECC is different from the California ISO.
My question for last Tuesday was to find out to what level did the ISO reserves fall (as the limited information I have implies that they fell to less than a "current value of 5%.") So I am specifically asking for the lowest reserve value on Tuesday. If the answer was a number below 5%, (which all information I have appears to be the case) then I would like to know why an E-508C Stage 2 Emergency Notice was not declared by the ISO.
If I can clarify my "Tuesday questions" further, please do not hesitate to ask me to explain.
In summary, I would like to know:
(1) the lowest reserve value for last Tuesday,
(2) how that value is calculated,
(3) if "current reserves were below 5%" why a Stage 2 Emergency Notice was not called,
(4) if the ISO was implementing mitigation that would assure that reserves would not go below 5%, what were those mitigation measures.
For last Wednesday, the ISO declared a Stage 2 Emergency Notice and required certain loads to be interrupted. For Wednesday, I would like to know the lowest reserve value for last Wednesday (there appear to be four clock hours in which reserves may have been "currently" low or "forecast" to be low.). I would further like to know how the value was calculated, if the current or forecast value of reserves was below 1.5% why a "Stage 3 Emergency Notice" or "Stage 3 Emergency Notice of Load Interruption" was not declared, if there were some mitigation measures implemented by the California ISO to keep reserves above 1.5%, what were they.
Thank you
me, P.E.
Keep it up!
What follows is the PR persons bogus attempt at a response & kiss off.
I am going on vacaction until next week and will sleep on my response. I will be away from my computer for several days starting early tomorrow morning, but would appreciate thoughts on what I should do in a polite but escalating approach to finding the truth.
Mr. (me),
The WECC reserve requirement is not an instantaneous one, but rather a requirement that the integrated value over the course of any clock hour meets the minimum standard. For example, a Control Area could be drifting between 100 and 200 MW short of its reserve requirement for the first 30 minutes of the clock hour, but as long as it makes up that deficiency and carries enough reserve above the requirement for the last 30 minutes of the hour such that the actual Operating Reserve value at the end of the hour integrates to something equal to or greater than the requirement, you have met the criteria as a Control Area operator. Additionally, if a disturbance (loss of generation) in the Control Area has caused the ISO to utilize its operating reserve to recover ACE and frequency, we have 60 minutes to return our actual Operating Reserve to the required level.
If you feel the need to respond to this email, please respond to me. Our technical staff is dealing with a heavy workload here at the ISO. I think they have done a good job responding to your question. Any additional research, is more than we are able to provide. Thanks.