Market Renewal - Enabling System Flexibility
The IESO, along with market stakeholders, is examining the emerging need to schedule resources capable of responding within a short timeframe in order to manage forecast uncertainty in the real-time energy market. Because of the nature of this work, this initiative is now operating as part of the Market Renewal program.
In every timeframe that the IESO operates, decisions are made to ensure the reliable and efficient balancing of supply and demand. These decisions depend on high quality inputs, including dispatch data (offers and bids), demand forecast, schedules from self-scheduled generators and forecast of the output of variable generators (wind and solar).
Experience has shown that the output from variable generators is less predictable than that of other generators. While the IESO uses a centralized forecast provider for the output of variable generators over a number of timeframes, no forecast is always perfect.
In Ontario, the difference between forecast and actual values are larger a day-ahead, 5-hours ahead and 1-hour ahead than they are within the hour before real-time dispatch. Although these differences are smaller within the dispatch hour they can still be material. The real-time energy market dispatches other resources to resolve over/under-forecasts when they occur. However, if market operations are not expected to be able to provide sufficient flexibility to manage differences between actual and forecast output, it is sometimes necessary for the IESO to take out-of-market control actions to ensure the reliable operation of the system. This can be unnecessarily expensive.
With more variable generation expected, the associated increase in the differences between actual and forecast output of variable generators will further challenge the IESO’s ability to operate the system efficiently. There is a need to explore how to effectively ensure flexibility in managing supply and demand.
Get Involved
The IESO encourages all stakeholders with an interest in this initiative to participate.
For more information about how to become involved or to provide comments on this or any other Market Renewal initiative, please contact engagement@ieso.ca.
Engagement Plan (Draft)
Documents referenced on this page, but not posted, can be obtained by contacting engagement@ieso.ca with a link to the web page that lists the document and advise whether it needs to be provided in an accessible format. Please allow a minimum of one business day for a response.
Schedule of Activities
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Date |
Activities |
Expected Actions |
|---|---|---|
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May 1, 2018 |
Engagement Wrap-Up: Enabling System Flexibility |
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April 20, 2018 |
Next webinar
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Next webinar will be to review changes and how the increase in OR may be executed in the coming months |
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March 13, 2018 |
Engagement Update |
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January 23, 2018 |
Rule amendment package referred to Technical Panel |
Technical Panel will discuss at its March 6 meeting |
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December 22, 2017 |
Deadline for stakeholders to submit feedback on materials and issues discussed at the December 8 meeting
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December 8, 2017 |
Next Meeting
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November 29, 2017 |
IESO Response to Stakeholder Feedback |
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October 23, 2017 Agenda Meeting Notes |
Next Meeting
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August 22, 2017 |
Deadline for stakeholders to submit feedback on materials and issues discussed at August 1st meeting Stakeholder Feedback
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August 1, 2017 Meeting Notes |
Stakeholder Meeting
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February 17, 2017 |
Deadline for stakeholders to submit feedback on materials and issues discussed at January 27th meeting Stakeholder Feedback
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January 27, 2017 Meeting Notes |
Next Webinar
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December 8, 2016 |
Enabling System Flexibility Stakeholder Engagement Update
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August 31, 2016 |
Deadline for stakeholders to submit feedback on materials and issues discussed at August 16th meeting Stakeholder Feedback
IESO Response to Stakeholder Feedback |
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August 16, 2016 Agenda Meeting Notes (Draft) |
Stakeholder Meeting
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July - September, 2016 |
Stakeholder Meetings 2 and 3 Identification and exploration of potential options for flexibility |
Materials posted one week in advance of meeting |
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July 8, 2016 |
Deadline for stakeholders to submit feedback on materials and issues discussed at first meeting and feedback on SE Plan
|
Feedback will be posted on IESO stakeholder webpage (with permission) |
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June 24, 2016 Agenda Meeting Notes (Draft) |
Stakeholder Meeting - Overview of engagement and discussion of flexibility need
|
Materials posted one week in advance of meeting |
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June 9, 2016 |
Post Stakeholder Engagement Plan and Communication |
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