IESO News

Planned IT Outages

IESO — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:15:00 EST

There is currently one planned IT outage in the next week: a brief morning outage to the Online Outage Request Form on Wednesday, May 30.

Customers are First for Distribution Sector Stakeholder Representatives

IESO — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:14:00 EST

This is the second in a profile series about members of the IESO Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC provides advice to the IESO Board of Directors and Executive on market development and planning decisions and welcomes participation by all stakeholders.

Inter-jurisdictional Trading Standing Committee Webcast on May 31

IESO — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:13:00 EST

The agenda has been posted for next week's Inter-jurisdictional Trading Standing Committee meeting, taking place via webcast on Thursday, May 31 at 13:00 EDT. Meeting materials will follow. See http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/consult/intertieTrading_sub.asp for details.

Ontario Energy Board Notice of Application and Proceeding on Smart Metering Charge

IESO — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:55:00 EST

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has issued a Notice of Application in response to the IESO's application, in its capacity as the Smart Metering Entity, for a Smart Metering Charge (SMC) of $0.806 per Residential and General Service <50kW Customer per month. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has also issued a Notice of Proceeding to determine the appropriate allocation and recovery of the SMC. The OEB is combining the two proceedings.

Those wishing to participate may do so in the following ways:

Planned IT Outages

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:29:00 EST

Due to a planned IT outage, Message Exchange will be unavailable on Wednesday, May 23 between 12:15 and 12:45 EST. During this time, IESO will manually dispatch by phone as necessary since automated dispatch instructions will not be available. Pre-dispatch and dispatch schedules and prices may not be updated and administrative pricing will be used.

ORCP Forms Available for Comment

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:28:00 EST

Two Ontario Reliability Compliance Program (ORCP) forms have been posted to the Change Notification page (http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/changes/changeNoticeList.asp) for comment:

Ontario's Installed Generating Capacity Increases

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:27:00 EST

Ontario's installed generating capacity has increased from 32,537 to 32,975 MW, reflecting additional capacity available from the York Energy Centre. The values in both the System Status Report and Security and Adequacy Assessments (http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/marketdata/ssrsaa.asp) have been revised. These reports help participants make operational decisions by providing information about market and system conditions.

Technical Panel Determines Two Rule Amendments Warrant Consideration

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:26:00 EST

The Technical Panel determined that the following amendments warrant consideration:

Export Transmission Service Tariff Study Meeting

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:22:00 EST

Materials have been posted for the Export Transmission Service (ETS) Tariff Study stakeholder engagement meeting (SE-94) scheduled on May 24, 2012: http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/consult/consult_se94.asp.

Register for 2012 Smart Grid Canada Conference

IESO — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:21:00 EST

With so much focus on the technology behind smart grids, the 2012 Smart Grid Canada conference will turn the spotlight onto the electricity consumer. Held in partnership with the IESO, this year's conference will explore how consumers will ultimately shape the Canadian smart grid landscape. Leaders in the fields of consumer behaviour, marketing and customer care, government policy and the broader electricity sector will discuss:

Planned IT Outages

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:03:00 EST

A number of 5- to 10-minute outages of IESO systems are planned over the next week. On Friday, online forms for settlements will be briefly unavailable in the morning, while on Saturday, May 12, impacted systems are the confidential IESO Reports, Workflow for meter trouble reports and notices of disagreement (there is also a second, longer outage of Workflow in the afternoon), and the Online Outage Request Form. The Online Outage Request form will also be affected on May 15 and 16.

ORCP Form Available for Comment

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:02:00 EST

A new Ontario Reliability Compliance Program (ORCP) form, NERC Reliability Standard: 017-0 Special Protection System Maintenance and Testing (IESO-FORM-1748), has been posted to the Pending Changes page for comment: http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/changes/changeNoticeList.asp.

New Materials Enhance Understanding of Reliability Standards and Criteria

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:01:00 EST

New materials are available to help market participants better understand how North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Standards and Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) Criteria apply to their organizations.

Stakeholder Engagement Begins on Bulk Electric System Exception Process

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:00 EST

The IESO is creating a focus group for stakeholders to provide input on an exception process for Ontario facilities required to comply with the new Bulk Electric System (BES) definition. The definition is expected to come into effect later this year. This group will review a new Market Manual which will set out a process for market participants to seek exceptions to include or exclude their facilities from the BES definition in Ontario.

Energy Summary Report Ready for Wholesale Consumers

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:59:00 EST

Wholesale consumers will receive a monthly confidential report providing summary information about their electricity usage beginning May 14, 2012. Developed by the IESO in response to requests from consumers, the Customer Energy Summary shows key metrics including:

New IESO Publications Available for Ontario Businesses

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:26:00 EST

Two new IESO publications are available to help Ontario businesses understand and manage their electricity costs:

Privacy by Design within Ontario's Smart Meter Entity

IESO — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:26:00 EST

The Information and Privacy Commissioner's office and the IESO have jointly released a paper describing the IESO's commitment to developing controls that explicitly deal with the privacy and security of smart meter data. In building and operating the Meter Data Management and Repository (MDM/R) the IESO, as the Smart Metering Entity, is following Commissioner Ann Cavoukian's Privacy by Design principles.

Planned IT Outages

IESO — Thu, 3 May 2012 15:47:00 EST

The Online Outage Request Form will be unavailable for a short period on the morning of Wednesday, May 9.

IESO Public Training Courses Run May 15 to 17

IESO — Thu, 3 May 2012 15:46:00 EST

The IESO's public training courses on the Ontario electricity market are scheduled to take place from May 15 to 17 at the Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport. Three day-long workshops are being offered:

April 2012 Pricing Events

IESO — Thu, 3 May 2012 15:45:00 EST

There were five instances where the Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) was less than $0 during the month of April. These were caused by ample generation availability and mild weather conditions. The lowest HOEP for the month was -$57.72 set on April 29, hour ending 8 and the lowest 5-minute interval price was -$128.20 in interval 1 of the same hour. The lowest hourly market demand of 12,911 MW occurred on April 15, hour ending 5.

SAC Chair John Witjes Focuses on Public Sector Information Needs

IESO — Thu, 3 May 2012 15:43:00 EST

This is first in a profile series about members of the IESO Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC provides advice to the IESO Board of Directors and Executive on market development and planning decisions and welcomes participation by all stakeholders.

Planned IT Outages

IESO — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:39:00 EST

On Wednesday, May 2 the IESO Sandbox systems used for participant testing including the Sandbox Portal, Sandbox Reports Site and Sandbox Market Participant Interface will be unavailable from 7:00 to 17:00 EST. There will also be a brief outage of the Online Outage Request Form in the morning.

Dynamic Model Reduction Rapidly Computes System Limits

IESO — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:38:00 EST

Among the challenges in securely operating a large, interconnected, bulk electricity system is modeling appropriate real-time system limitations for the transmission of electricity. To do this, the IESO employs the model created by NERC which includes more than 63,000 nodes (Ontario accounts for about 5 per cent of the total). The model is very accurate for planning and operational studies, but the computer time required to run it is far too long to be useful in real-time operations.

New Dates Posted on 2012 Ontario Reliability Compliance Program Schedule

IESO — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:37:00 EST

Changes have been made to the 2012 Ontario Reliability Compliance Program (ORCP) Schedule. June 6, 2012 is the new deadline to certify compliance with North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) standard COM-002-2 Communication and Coordination. In addition, June 6, 2012 is no longer the deadline to certify compliance with NERC Standard PRC-017-0 Special Protection System Maintenance and Testing. The new date is still to be determined.

Technical Panel Recommends Two Rule Amendments to the IESO Board

IESO — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:35:00 EST

The Technical Panel has recommended that the IESO Board of Directors approve two Market Rule amendments when it meets on June 14, 2012: