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The last five years have been one of the most exciting times for the energy storage industry. We have seen significant advancements in the regulatory process to make accommodations for valuing and monetizing energy storage for what it provides to the grid. The most impactful regulatory decision for the energy storage industry has come from California, where the California Public Utilities Commission issued a decision that mandates procurement requirements of 1.325 GW for energy storage to three investor-owned utilities in four stages in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Furthermore, at the federal level, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) Order 755 requires transmission operators to develop pay-for-performance tariffs for ancillary services. This has had a direct impact on the market design of U.S. competitive wholesale markets and the monetization of fast-responding grid assets. While this order is technology neutral, it clearly plays into the fast-responding capability of energy storage technologies. Today, PJM, CAISO, MISO, NYISO, and NE–ISO have implemented Order 755 and offer new tariff-for-regulation services based on pay-for-performance principles. Furthermore, FERC Order 784, which was issued in July 2013, requires transmission providers to consider speed and accuracy in determining the requirements for ancillary services. In November 2013, FERC issued Order 972, which revises the small generator interconnection agreement that declares energy storage as a power source. This order puts energy storage on par with existing generators. This paper will discuss the implementation of FERC's pay-for-performance regulation order at all independent service operators (ISOs) in the United States under FERC regulatory authority (this excludes ERCOT). Also discussed will be the market impacts and overall impacts on the NERC regulation performance indexes. The paper ends with a discussion on the California, New York, and Ontario, Canada, procurement mandates and the opportunity that it may present to the energy storage industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a power system covering a large geographical area, a single model for load forecasting of the entire area sometimes cannot guarantee satisfactory forecasting accuracy. One of the major reasons is because of the load diversity, usually caused by weather diversity, throughout the area. Multiregion load forecasting will be a feasible and effective solution to generate more accurate forecasting results, as well as provide regional forecasts for the utilities. However, a major challenge is how to optimally partition/merge the areas according to the regional load and weather conditions. This paper investigates the electricity demand and weather data from an electric utility in Midwest, U.S. Based on the data analysis, we demonstrate the existence of weather and load diversity within its control area and then develop a short-term multiregion load forecasting system based on support vector regression for day-ahead operation and market. The proposed multiregion forecasting system can find the optimal region partition under diverse weather and load conditions and finally achieve more accurate forecasts for aggregated system load. The proposed forecasting system has been tested by using the real data from the system. The numerical results obtained for different region partition schemes validate the effectiveness of the proposed multiregion forecasting system. The detailed discussions on the forecasting results have also been given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-term load forecasting is always a popular topic in the electric power industry because of its essentiality in energy system planning and operation. In the deregulated power system, an improvement of a few percentages in the prediction accuracy would bring benefits worth of millions of dollars, which makes load forecasting become more important than ever before. This paper focuses on the short-term load forecasting for a power system in the U.S., where several alternative meteorological forecasts are available from different commercial weather services. To effectively take advantage of the alternative meteorological predictions in the load forecasting system, a new comprehensive forecasting methodology has been proposed in this paper. Specifically, combining forecasting using adaptive coefficients is applied to share the strength of the different temperature forecasts in the first stage, and then, ensemble neural networks have been used to improve the model's generalization performance based on bagging. The proposed load forecasting system has been verified by using the real data from the utility. A range of comparisons with different forecasting models have been conducted. The forecasting results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FERC Order 755 requires each RTO/ISO to use market-based mechanisms to select and compensate frequency regulation resources based on a two-part payment methodology, i.e., a capacity payment to keep the capacity in reserve and a performance payment to reflect the amount of work each resource performs in real-time in response to the system operator's dispatch signal. This paper discusses how MISO enhanced its market rules to implement a market-based regulation performance payment. The market enhancement includes four key areas: quantifying the movement of regulation, modifications to the market clearing processes, performance accuracy measurement, and performance-based two-part regulation compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today's power utilities, around the world, own multiple substations that are connected together to form a complex energy network. The functions within and between these substations are being automated according to globally accepted power utility automation standard IEC 61850. This automation results in efficient operation and enhanced protection of power network with the aid of the communication system. Implementing the protection schemes modeled using communication configurations of standardized information exchange will lead to digital power grid. Designing an IEC-61850-based protection scheme to take care of the faults outside the substations is a challenge, as the typical local-area-network-based generic-object-oriented substation events and sampled-value messages need to be transmitted over a wide-area network. This paper presents communication configuration for line current differential protection schemes applied between two automated substations. It presents the simulation results of communication configuration network between two substations. Its performance is evaluated using a network simulator tool. This study intends to guide the development of a robust protection scheme with IEC-61850-based communication configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a new framework in calculating the ex post prices for the spot electricity market. The proposed method finds a set of prices that are as consistent as possible with the actual outputs of resources correctly following their dispatch instructions. Two alternative consistency metrics are proposed in the paper. One measures the difference between the actual performance of an individual resource and its bid-based profit-maximizing response to the ex post prices in a perfectly competitive market. Another measures the difference between the ex post price and the price that supports the actual response of an individual resource. Compared to the existing approaches adopted in the real-time electricity markets in the U.S., the proposed method solves the ex post energy and ancillary service prices directly and simultaneously. It does not require heuristics that are hard to justify, and has a much clear definition for the pricing problem than the existing approaches do. Moreover, the proposed approach is flexible in the price control required by the market operators. Numerical examples are presented to further demonstrate the validity of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a competitive electricity market, a generation company (Genco) can manage its trading risk through trading electricity among multiple markets such as spot markets and contract markets. The question is how to decide the trading proportion of each market in order to maximize the Genco's profit and minimize the associated risk. Based on the mean-variance portfolio theory, this paper proposes a sequential optimization approach to electric energy allocation between spot and contract markets, taking into consideration the risks of electricity price, congestion charge, and fuel price. Especially, the impact of the fuel market on electric energy allocation is analyzed and simulated with historical data in respect of the electricity market and other fuel markets in the U.S. Simulation results confirm that the proposed analytic approach is consistent with intuition and therefore reasonable and feasible for a Genco to make a trading plan involving risks in an electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System reliability is an integral part of a properly designed deregulated electricity market, even though wholesale energy prices are its most visible piece. This paper discusses the resources, collectively known as the ancillary, services, in a power system for maintaining reliability. It then discusses an integrated approach in systematically determining and securing the needed ancillary services and system configuration across multiple time spans, culminating in the cooptimization of energy and ancillary services for security-constrained generator unit commitment in the day-ahead market and security-constrained economic dispatch of the generators in real-time operation. The paper also provides a summary of the ancillary services market in several U.S. power markets and proposes several technical issues for further discussion and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of alternate fuels and raw materials in the cement manufacturing process has evolved substantially over the last two to three decades, along with approaches to acquire regulatory approval. Most recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published new regulations as an overlay to what has been in place, having the potential to significantly impact this practice. Instead of dealing with the state agencies that usually have permitting authority, the new rules add another layer of regulatory hurdles by EPA. The new regulations also force a more significant overlap of the air permitting and solid waste rules. As a result, implementing an alternate material program and seeking approval has the potential to be considerably more challenging for the regulated community, in addition to adding complexity for the state agency permitting staff. This paper provides an update on the latest solid waste and air regulations applicable to alternative material use in cement plants, and potential implications for the U.S. industry. Early experiences will be explored, in addition to contemplating potential permitting and/or approval pathways expected to be encountered with the newest regulations in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a practical and effective model for the generation forecasting of a wind farm with an emphasis on its scheduling and trading in a wholesale electricity market. A novel forecasting model is developed based on indepth investigations of meteorological information. This model adopts a two-stage hybrid network with Bayesian clustering by dynamics and support vector regression. The proposed structure is robust with different input data types and can deal with the nonstationarity of wind speed and generation series well. Once the network is trained, we can straightforward predict the 48-h ahead wind power generation. To demonstrate the effectiveness, the model is applied and tested on a 74-MW wind farm located in the southwest Oklahoma of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 14, 2003, the U.S. faced the largest blackout in history, which left over 50 million people without electricity in eight U.S. states and part of Canada. This paper investigates the effects of the blackout on the security values of the U.S. electric utilities and manufacturing firms in the electric power equipment industry, using an event study method. The results of this empirical study show that the electric utilities were negatively affected, but the electrical equipment manufacturing firms were significantly, positively affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural gas fired power plants (NGFPP) are important electricity generation resources in the United States. Optimizing the natural gas supply portfolio, especially the short-term portfolio, is critical for the day-to-day operations and the financial performance of NGFPPs. Traditionally, such optimization problems are solved using cost-minimization-based frameworks. However, such frameworks are facing challenges due to the lack of consideration of associated financial risks in the current deregulated electricity markets, which the electric utility companies (EUCs) who own and operate NGFPPs now bear. This paper presents a utility-maximization-based framework to optimize the short-term natural gas supply portfolio for the EUC. It considers the financial risks associated with the portfolio and incorporates the risk preferences of the EUCs as decision-maker (DM) in the portfolio optimization process. An application of the proposed framework is provided, and its results show that the proposed framework is more desirable in terms of risk-cost trade-off optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market uncertainties in the generation business in the U.S. electric power industry have increased the significance of two factors in generation planning: financial risks and managerial flexibilities. At the same time, numerous utilities have multiple generation planning: projects that are interrelated with respect to their market values. For such utilities, in order to quantitatively address these two factors, in this paper, we develop and analyze a real options model for general n interrelated projects. Specifically, first, we derive a unique lattice process that approximates interrelated continuous processes for the evolution of values of projects and options (e.g., selling a constructed project). The steps of the approximation for n projects are presented progressively starting from two projects. Next, based on the lattice process, we investigate the impact of interrelation on the values of options. Then, we provide a backward dynamic programming model for optimal sequential decision making where the decisions are made over the options. Finally, managerial insights and economic implications are illustrated via numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilities have long struggled with establishing re- source planning criteria that ensure adequate resources to meet loads at low cost. Historically, many utilities used planning reserve margin criteria. The onset of deregulation brought about a paradigm shift in which it was expected that markets would provide a more efficient mechanism for maintaining resource sufficiency in the course of system demand growth. Major power shortages in the Midwest and California in the wake of deregulation led to a reexamination by most regions of the need for centralized resource planning and integrated resource plans. Reserve margin techniques continue to be used by many resource planners to ensure resource adequacy. Simulation-based probabilistic assessments can provide a more direct measure of adequacy but are quite intensive computationally and therefore only allow exploring a limited number of scenarios. In this paper, we suggest a simple analytical probabilistic approach to maintaining resource adequacy and calculating peak load carrying capability of incremental generating units. The methodology targets a level of system adequacy, rather than a specified reserve margin, under system expansion. It provides. a powerful technique for simply calculating probability-based load carrying capability of resource additions without iteratively running computationally intensive stochastic computer models. The technique also provides a simple but effective method for developing portfolios of resources with comparable contributions to system adequacy. The latter may be employed in capacity expansion algorithms as a simpler, more efficient, and more accurate method of determining least-cost resource additions than targeting planning reserve margins. Applications of these techniques to the IEEE Reliability Test System illustrate the methods and verify the results with a stochastic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tens and hundreds of thousands of disturbances occur annually in modern power systems. The overwhelming majority of them are eliminated by relay protection devices and other automatic systems and by the actions of the dispatching personnel. A small fraction of the emergencies (tens of cases in such large power interconnections as those in the United States and Canada, Europe, and the United Power System (UPS) of Russia) result in significant system failures, sometimes of a cascading nature. They are consequences of unusual primary disturbances, failures of automatic emergency control systems, protection device malfunctions, and errors by personnel, but do not cause extreme consequences for the power system and the consumers. Of these, only some rare failures--blackouts--become catastrophes with severe long-term consequences for the national economies and population. Recent blackouts in North America, Europe, Russia, and other countries require specialists once again to pay closer attention to the blackout phenomenon. It is often believed that the philosophy of preventing blackouts should be based on dispatching personnel training, wide-area system visibility, and better computer models for the analysis of the stability and security of power systems. The authors of this paper also think that in emergency situations of a cascading nature, automatic emergency control systems should play a major role. A confirmation for this statement is the fact that from 1975 to 2005 there were no blackouts in the UPS of Russia (where automatic emergency control systems are widely used). At the same time, the Moscow blackout demonstrated that the growing problems in the Russia's UPS (such as aging equipment and load growth) made it also vulnerable to major blackouts. This stresses again that the electrical power industry faces common global problems and that a global effort, cooperation, and exchange of the best practices are needed to prevent blackouts. This paper describes the Russian principles and systems of dispatch and emergency control--a multilevel defense system protecting the Russian power grefid from developing cascade failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into transmission pricing and congestion management in interconnected power systems, such as those found in USA and Europe, requires an appropriate benchmark system to test different methodologies. Creation of a realistic benchmark system is difficult as utilities are often unwilling to disclose details of their own systems because of commercial sensitivity and security reasons. This paper presents development of an approximate model of a European interconnected system which could be used to study the effects of cross-border trades. In creating the load-flow model, only publicly available information was used. Comparison of simulation results conducted on the test system with the published cross-border flows and power transfer distribution factors showed a very good correlation, exceeding 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy storage is a natural option toward adding the much-needed flexibility for integrating higher amounts of wind generation into the existing power system. This paper presents field results and analyses quantifying the ability and the value of Sodium Sulfur (NAS) battery energy storage toward shifting wind generation from off-peak to on-peak, limiting the ramp rate of wind farm output, and a strategy to integrate the aforementioned goals. The battery can also be considered on a system level independent of wind. It is argued that even in its capacity as a system resource independent of wind, the battery can aid integration of wind generation. Analyses quantifying the value of the battery in the energy and operating reserve markets are presented. Financially optimal locations to site the battery have also been identified. The presented research is a part of the “Wind to Battery” project led by Xcel Energy, a major U.S. utility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the energy storage system and the power electronic interface included in microsources of the CERTS microgrid. CERTS stands for the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions. The consortium was formed in 1999 to research, develop, and disseminate new methods, tools, and technologies to protect and enhance the reliability of the U.S. electric power system and efficiency of competitive electricity markets. To provide the plug-and-play feature and the power quality requirements of the CERTS microgrid, all microsources regardless of their prime mover type must have a unified dynamic performance. This necessitates attaching an energy storage module to some or all of the microsources. The storage module is attached to the prime mover through a power electronic interface that couples the microsource to the microgrid. Details of the energy storage module, the power electronic interface and the corresponding controls are described. Performance of an example microsource, which includes a synchronous generator, a storage module and an electronic interface, is studied. Dynamic performance of the example microsource when operating in the CERTS microgrid is evaluated based on digital time-domain simulations in the EMTP-RV software environment. Effectiveness of the storage module, the electronic interface and the corresponding controls in enhancing the microsource performance is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancillary service markets are a very important part of the Standard Market Design and are under development or implementation on a centralized basis in major U.S. electricity markets. This paper presents the market clearing framework for the co-optimized real-time energy-reserve market that has been developed and implemented in the ISO New England (ISO NE). In this co-optimized market clearing model, reserve, products are procured on a zonal basis to satisfy the first and the second contingency protection criteria required by the ISO NE's real-time operations for both the entire area and typical import-constrained areas. The proposed zonal reserve model is derived from simulating each contingency event in the predefined reserve zones. Differing from standard industrial practices, the proposed zonal reserve model recognizes reserve deliverability for nested reserve zones and allocates the zonal total transfer capability between energy and reserves in an economic way. Numerical examples for a two-zone system are presented to demonstrate the validity of this modeling technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the validation of a numerical model based on the full-scale broken insulator tests on a 138-kV high-voltage steel transmission line. The University of Wisconsin and the Electric Power Research Institute performed these tests in 1978. A finite-element model of the line is developed to perform incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis, carried out in the time domain. Upon validation of the numerical model with the test results, a sensitivity study is carried out for various insulator lengths, ice thicknesses, and initial tensions to determine the effects of these parameters on the impact loads on the tower cross arm. Results of the study show that the impact loads are less sensitive to the change in insulator length but they do vary significantly when the ice loads and the initial tensions are increased. Studies of this type are now possible and are cost effective because of the use of commercial software not available at the time of the original research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmission systems in the United States and around the world have become more difficult to plan under deregulation. Uncertainties in generation type, location, and pricing coupled with market mechanisms that encourage transfers not designed for in the legacy transmission system have made the transmission planner's life difficult. This paper describes the planning process under regulation, some of the issues encountered during the present transition to a deregulated industry, and some of the open questions that need to be addressed in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of spot markets for generation services, such as energy, regulation, and operating reserves, and longer term markets for capacity, remain in evolution in many countries. Market design includes definition of the service, bid, or offer requirements, and rules for pricing and financial settlement. In the United States, most organized regional markets have converged on similar elements of spot market design. The design of capacity markets remains influx. Market power mitigation is currently a regulatory requirement in the United States, and experience with different methods shows that it must be carefully aligned with market design to ensure both efficient pricing and efficient investment. This paper surveys these topics and their relationships to each other and identifies researchable issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the installation of the Dynamic Voltage Restorer on United States-based Duke Power Co. utility to protect a customer plant load from power system voltage disturbances. Series interconnection; High power test; Operating experience; Interconnection with utility distribution feeder; Voltage sag; Series insertion; Power quality.

Discloses the results of the two surveys on electric power industry's distribution reliability measurement practices in the United States. Pitfalls associated with comparing reliability indices between electric utilities; Causes of an outage and equipment failures; Application of the System Average Interruption Frequency Index and the System Average Interruption Duration Index.

Presents a method for benchmarking performance of electric distribution utilities in the U.S. based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Importance of performance benchmarking in an organization; Fundamentals of DEA; Case studies of several electric utilities concerning their performance analysis.

Focuses on the issue of power deregulation in competitive electric power markets in the United States. Restructuring of the electric power industry in California in 1998; Use of NASH equilibrium analysis for the supply bidding problem; Price spike analysis of the linear demand curve.

Presents a study which concentrated on project valuation and power portfolio management issues in a competitive management in the United States. Impact of deregulation and competition in its electric utility industry; Implementation of method; Conclusion.

With the issue of its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Standard Market Design (SMD NOPR) in July 2002, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) took a major step to ensure consistency in wholesale electricity markets. The SMD NOPR contains the Commission's most definitive guidelines regarding its vision of future competitive wholesale electric markets, their structure, and scope. Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) are at the heart of the order—providing the structure and institutions to support wholesale electricity trade and the management of the nation's transmission grid. Locational marginal pricing (LMP) and congestion revenue rights (CRRs) will be used to manage the operation of the transmission grid. As the geographics of these RTOs will expand across many states and one or more independent system operators (ISOs), the state regulators and ISOs, affected by FERC orders, are particularly interested in the assessment of economic impact in their states and ISO market areas, if these orders were adopted. While one can easily conceptualize the steps required to characterize the economic impact of implementing RTOs and SMD, the modeling and analytical methodology is extremely complex and requires that numerous ‘reasonable assumptions’ be made to approximate the operations of the electric system. Results from a case study are used to illustrate the impact of key assumptions and the inherent imprecision in this type of analysis. These types of issues, modeling, and analytical considerations are relevant for evaluating the impact of changing electricity market structures throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread deregulation of the U.S. wholesale power industry in the late 1990s was followed in many regions by substantial overbuilding of capacity. This behavior calls in to question the longer term stability of the deregulated industry. A dynamic model structure of power-producing regions, suitable for longer term analysis of capacity investment and market stability, was created and validated against 20 years of data for two regions. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that for a realistic range of assumptions, the deregulated wholesale power markets are substantially more cyclical than they would have been under a regulated monopoly regime. The models can be improved in several areas, most notably further simplification, analysis of impacts of market structure and design, and addition of transmission constraints among regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of wholesale markets on operations of the bulk power system and elaborate some basic implications of engineering practices for designs of wholesale markets. This analysis is intended to provide a basis for enhancements to existing principles of engineering management. Wholesale markets bring economic and financial aspects that alter the context in which system operations are conducted, and introduce incentive and benefit--cost considerations that might alter operating procedures that previously were based on reliability considerations. The principles addressed are those relevant to the interface between engineering aspects of system operations, and economic aspects of market operations. We outline ways that engineering practices developed in the era of vertically integrated utilities might be adapted to the wholesale markets introduced since restructuring began in 1998 in the United States [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. wholesale power market comprises a large commodity market. The growth in power trading is due to the ongoing deregulation policy of the electric power industry. Most deregulation scenarios indicate a further separation of power production from transmission and retailing. The power production is opened to more competition. Unfortunately, the power trading mechanism is not clearly investigated in the level that we can predict a price change in the U.S. wholesale power market. Such a price change in the U.S. wholesale power market is explored from a simulation system with learning capabilities. Using the new intelligence system, we investigate the bidding strategies of traders in the wholesale power market and examine how the price change occurs under different economic and engineering environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I. Discusses issues concerned with the parallel operation and interconnection of emergency and standby synchronous generation resources with the electric power systems. Background of the U.S. electric power system; Details of parallel operation of the on-site generation with the utility derived service; Operating modes of the soft load control.

Provides an overview of elements necessary for effective design and implementation of electricity market monitoring systems. Definition of the concept of market power, market inefficiency and gaming; Summary of the main market monitoring activities of independent system operators in California; Recommendations for developing effective market monitoring systems.

Proposes an auction-based process that allows power market participants to acquire and reconfigure financial transmission rights in the U.S. Fundamental elements in the design of restructured power markets; Purpose of regional transmission organizations initiative in the country; Types of financial transmission rights; Descriptions of the joint energy and transmission rights auction.

Provides information on a study which described a method of calculating Available Transfer Capability and the exploration of the first order effects of certain power system network variables. Order of the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding electrical control areas; Conclusion of the study.

Presents a study performed with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to assess the benefits of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) for electric utility applications. Information about Presque Isle generation transfer and Point Beach Wobble; Technical and cost analyses of Presque Isle generation transfer and Point Beach Wobble; Concluding remarks.