News and Updates

Market Renewal Newsletter-August Update

August 13, 2020

Every issue we’re featuring an update from someone different on the Market Renewal team to shed light into their line of work.

From the desk of...Declan Doyle, Senior Manager, Market Renewal Program, Outreach and Strategy

COVID-19 has meant we’ve pivoted to virtual engagement efforts for the past five months and I’ve appreciated your continued support, ongoing engagement, and collaboration as we work our way through the detailed design phase of the Market Renewal Program (MRP).

While there’s still more work to do to complete the detailed design, and respond to the thoughtful and constructive feedback we received, we are getting closer to the finish line and the quality of the product has been enhanced by your contributions. Beyond the responses we posted, this fall, we will be sharing a design tracker document to show the feedback we received and how we're incorporating it into the final detailed design documents.

Over the next few months, we’ll start engaging on the market rules and manuals. Your input is critical as these documents codify the energy market redesign and focus on specific processes of participating in the future IESO-Administered Markets.

One of our guiding principles is transparency which is why we’re committed to keeping you in the know and up-to-date whether it’s through this newsletter, the Stakeholder Engagement Days, and at the technical working sessions.

As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have any feedback on this newsletter or have a question about our upcoming engagement activities.

I look forward to continuing to work and collaborate with you in support of our market renewal efforts and am truly grateful that you’ve continued to join us along this journey to make market renewal a reality.

Declan

What we're working on -
Detailed design

In July, a revised publishing schedule was announced for the remaining detailed design calculation engine documents. This will give you more time to review the documents and provide us with feedback.

July 27: Day-ahead market calculation engine document (PDF), feedback is due by September 24
August 31: Real-time calculation engine document will be posted, feedback is due by October 29
September 30: Pre-dispatch calculation engine document will be posted, feedback is due by November 26
We’ll be hosting a technical session on the structure and functional passes of the engine, including scheduling and pricing, at the August 27 Stakeholder Engagement Day.

Market rules and manuals

Engagement on the energy stream market rules and manuals will be organized into five major batches of work:

Market Entry (authorization and participation; facility registration; and prudentials)
Market Power Mitigation
Market and System Operations (offers, bids and data inputs; grid and markets operation integration)
Settlements, Metering, Billing, Publishing and Reporting
Calculation Engines

We’ll support you in your review of each batch of market rules and manuals by:

Providing education on what is changing;
Holding engagement meetings during the comment period of each batch to discuss comments and questions; and
Responding to your feedback.

Market Power Mitigation framework

As part of the Market Power Mitigation market rules and manuals engagement, we’ll be holding sessions over the next few months to dig into specific details around determining reference levels and reference quantities. At these sessions we’ll share the methodology that will be used to develop reference levels and quantities for the new market power mitigation framework and obtain your feedback. We’ll be holding a kick-off meeting on August 27 at 1:00 p.m. as part of the Stakeholder Engagement Day agenda followed by more detailed meetings by technology type between September and December. The outcome of these sessions will help inform the development of the Market Power Mitigation market rules and manuals to be released mid-2021.

Related IESO news

Capacity Auction update
The first capacity auction will be held on December 2, 2020. Target capacities for the summer 2021 and winter 2021-22 obligation periods will be announced soon. Originally scheduled for June, the auction was deferred, pending further analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on supply and demand forecasts, and resulting updates to our resource adequacy outlook. For additional information on the auction, please visit the capacity auction web page.

Reliability Outlook
The Reliability Outlook for July 2020 to December 2021 was released recently. The report details Ontario’s demand forecast and associated drivers and shows that overall, our system is well-positioned for the next 18 months, with adequate supply to meet demand.

Reminders

Stakeholder feedback on the Day-Ahead Market Calculation Engine document is due by September 24. You can read the document, download the feedback form and email it to engagement@ieso.ca.

Key dates

August 26-28 – Stakeholder Engagement Days
August 31 – Real-time calculation engine document published
September to December – Multiple market power mitigation meetings organized by technology type
September 28-30 – Stakeholder Engagement Days
September 30 – Pre-dispatch calculation engine document published

Did you know?

As part of the day-ahead market (DAM), the IESO will be introducing virtual transactions – a common feature in all other US electricity markets.

Virtual transactions are energy supply offers and demand bids (in the DAM) that do not represent physical supply or demand and must therefore be sold or purchased back in the real-time market. Virtual offers and bids are treated the same as physical supply offers and load bids, which means they can affect DAM clearing prices and schedules. Virtual transactions are also settled just like physical supply and load in the DAM.

Virtual transactions can broaden day-ahead participation with more competitive buyers and sellers enabling the DAM to determine which physical units will be most economical to physically commit to meet real-time load.

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