Cal-ISO: underscheduling caused grid failures
  
09/28/2000 
Megawatt Daily 
(c) Copyright 2000 Pasha Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
Under-scheduling of load on the part of California's utilities caused 
reliability problems in the state's electricity grid this summer, Ziad 
Alaywan, the managing director of engineering and support at the California 
Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) said. Speaking at a Cal-ISO stakeholder 
meeting this week, Alaywan said Cal-ISO was forced to spend over $100 million 
in out-of-market purchases this summer in order to cover unscheduled load not 
purchased by the utilities in the day-ahead markets. 
A confluence of factors added up to create the emergency situations the 
Cal-ISO faced this summer, according to Alaywan. He cited arbitrage between 
the California Power Exchange (Cal PX) and Cal-ISO markets, a reliance on 
real-time (rather than day-ahead) markets and a general shortage of power 
supply in California as reasons why California's power grid was stretched to 
its limits this summer. 
According to figures presented by Alaywan, the instance of under-scheduling 
was some 50% higher this summer than in the two previous summers. This 
under-scheduling resulted in a total of 36 stage 1 and 2 emergencies between 
June 1 and August 15 and dictated that the ISO curtail 13,450 MW on 12 
different occasions. In addition, the ISO spent $100,820,000 on out-of-market 
electricity purchases during that period, up from $790,000 the previous year. 
As a solution, Alaywan suggested increasing incentives to engage in forward 
scheduling of power and that supply be increased. The Cal-ISO has made a 
request for proposals for some 3000 MW for next summer to be used as a 
peaking management tool, as well as allotting $800 million for transmission 
upgrades over the next five years, Alaywan said. 
Elena Schmid, Cal-ISO's vice president of strategic development and 
communication, also speaking at the meeting cited insufficient generation, 
inadequate transmission, under-scheduling of load, a lack of price responsive 
demand, and the exercise of market power as market failures handicapping the 
ISO's smooth delivery of power. To combat these shortcomings, Jeanne Sole, in 
charge of long-term grid planning at the ISO, suggested that the ISO 
encourage expansion of the gird and the competitive provision of electricity 
for the California market. Changes must be made in the ISO and other entities 
involved in power transmission and regulation over the next 18 months to 
lessen the likelihood of such problems occurring in the future, the speakers 
said. ADP