Webinar: “CAISO EIM Lessons Learned & Market Entry Preparedness”
Session Q&A
The following are the questions posed during the live webinar on December 3rd.
1. How do EIM participants decide where responsibility resides between marketing and load
serving entities?
Responsibilities tend to firm up as a company is walked through all the tasks that must be performed.
Most tasks have a definite home while some are clearly assigned based on the historical preference of
the company. Companies that are clients of PCI have the benefit of being walked through all the
various work activities that we have defined with EIM.
2. We are looking at optimization solutions – what EIM considerations should we consider in
making a decision?
There are several big requirements needed with optimization and EIM. First the optimization solution
should be consistent from long-term planning to the next hour. The optimization engine should be
based on consistent information and inputs to ensure results are consistent from long-term to the next
hour. The solution needs to be able to support at a minimum a 7 day optimization plan and a rolling 48
hour plan. The 7 day optimization is needed to support submitting Day-Ahead Base Schedules where
the 48 hour plan supports each Real-Time hour. The second big need is that the optimization engine for
the 48 hour plan needs to be able to process in preferably 15 minutes or less. This time includes a user
approving the results. A company may be able to stretch this a little, but the longer the processing time,
the less time there will be to verify data imports, get data into the engine, optimize and get data out of
the engine. Finally an important need for the optimization process is that it needs to be able support
those hard to handle capabilities such as hydro optimization, limit capability resources (i.e. hydro
storage and limited run times due to emissions) and variable energy resources.
The key requirements specifically for EIM include the ability to create the base schedule and allocate
not only energy but also ancillary services to each of your units. The other key component for
optimization is the need to mimic CAISO requirements for MSG units such that your own optimization
model will support the multiple stages and transition matrix that CAISO requires.
3. We currently trade with CAISO. If we join CAISO EIM, will we still trade in CAISO MRTU
simultaneously with the CAISO EIM market?
Companies that join EIM still have the capability to participate with CAISO in the Day-Ahead Market the
same way as they did before they joined. As for Real-Time, there hasn’t been a case outlined how
someone with resources in EIM could benefit when CAISO is dispatching their system in EIM. In fact if
a case example can be defined, then there must be an optimization problem with the CAISO dispatch
engine. A company could participate in Real-Time if they are offering into EIM at an intertie once
CAISO begins to offer this capability.
Confidential to Power Costs, Inc. (PCI)
4. What is your experience in implementation timeline? What duration should be planned for?
Consistently everyone recommends the need to have more time. For software implementation, one
year is the absolute recommended minimum, but 18 months is highly desirable. Also there is a general
recommendation to try and get as much done ahead of EIM as is possible such as installing an
optimization, outage and energy accounting solutions compatible with EIM. One big risk that a company
will face when implementing peripheral system such as these is that they don’t understand the EIM
needs fully to ensure rework doesn’t occur.
5. With EIM, there will be some significant organization paradigm changes. What type of
implementation structure is best suited for this?
Most companies plan to keep their same organization structure. Many people are uncomfortable with
major changes. Implementing EIM is about managing change and educating the company about it. The
recommendation is to educate staff on the benefits of EIM and how they can, with their assistance,
improve the bottom line.
6. The hardest part of planning is anticipating what you don’t know. What is the biggest hurdle
your company had to overcome with CAISO EIM that they didn’t know at the onset?
The biggest hurdle is the lack of understanding around the Balancing Authority necessary activities.
Many of these activities are not yet documented by CAISO such as the need to provide CAISO
dynamic limits and Real-Time Interchange Schedules.
7. How is your company ensuring they will have a balanced plan at T-40?
PCI has worked with APS and PSE to work out the business workflows to ensure they will have
balanced schedules. PCI is incorporating some software helper tools that will allow the Balancing
Authority to adjust base schedules in just a few minutes.
8. What drives the decision on registering resources as MSG (Multi Staged Generators)?
Understanding the CAISO MSG model is really helpful here along with knowing how a company is able
and willing to operate it resources. It is also important that a company understand how and when
CAISO can mitigate a resource and the sometimes undesirable impacts that can occur related to MSG
operations.
9. What are the most critical tasks that you want software to perform in the EIM?
Tasks that do not allow much time such as optimization, bid submission and outage management are
tasks that if not performed quickly can result it lost opportunities or even charges. Other tasks that are
data intensive such as settlements and transmission billing where user mistakes can be limited and the
staff will not need to be significantly increased to handle the greater workflow demands.
10. In order not to under estimate metering needs of EIM, what should a company know?
Companies need to understand the market really needs 5 minute data at interties, resources and loads.
Data must account for distribution losses and transmission losses. This data is not only needed for
CAISO, but will also be needed for transmission billing. Keep in mind that losses are monetized in the
market and meter data will need to be available in transmission billing to charge for losses.
Confidential to Power Costs, Inc. (PCI)
11. What recommendations can be given to a BA about setting up the processing to bill out
CAISO’s EIM charges?
Companies need to plan this will take longer than it appears. They also need to be aware that there
may be gaps in their proposed tariff that will require changes. It is best to have this planned out before
presenting their tariff for review to their transmission customers in the event there are changes needed.
12. Can you tell us which products are being used by the three companies presenting at PCI’s
webinar?
The table below outlines the products that PCI is providing each company.
13. What is your support structure for working with CAISO on new market releases?
PCI Product Managers attend the Market Performance and Planning Forum, the Release User Group,
the Technical User Group and the Market Settlements User Group meetings for changes and to say in
touch with future plans. We also monitor the CAISO email distribution groups to stay ahead of changes.
As part of our planning we include all planned CAISO work in our schedule so that PCI and our clients
can test in CAISO’s spring and fall test cycles. PCI routinely works with CAISO on changes to get
clarification where gaps are identified in the published documents.
PCI has a large support staff supporting all existing CAISO customers and our EIM customer base is
added to that team support structure.
14. What has changed in PCI’s product implementations specific to the EIM market?
PCI has added several product features to support mostly the BA side that are not in the full market
such as: Base Schedules for Interties, Real-Time Interchanges, Dynamic Limit submission and meter
data submission. We have also added many features to support testing and balancing base schedules.
15. What do you see as the main challenges to implement PCI systems for EIM participants?
The biggest challenge is that a company has predetermined what they feel they need for systems when
they didn’t understand the full EIM needs. PCI supports working with and integrating with other
systems, but they need to be able to perform in the EIM time windows. In other cases companies didn’t
see the need and find out later that they have to have a particular software requirement.
Confidential to Power Costs, Inc. (PCI)
16. What are the biggest changes for utilities moving into the EIM market?
Having staff to support their current operations and having staff to plan and implement EIM. We also
heard on the call the companies mention completing the Full Network Model and Master File
information very early on in the process.
17. For ISO PTO participants, what percent of market transactions trade in the term and daily
bilateral markets outside of the ISO?
This is not expected to change for a company entering EIM. The EIM optimizes generation in RealTime and typically is not expected to change a company’s bilateral trading activities.
18. Do non-CAISO participants within California continue to trade in the term and daily bilateral
markets with ISO participants? And if so, how liquid is this market?
Yes there is robust trading occurring. We would consider the market very liquid, but it is short lived
each day.
19. Is the OMT for Gen only or is there a transmission function?
PCI supports transmission and generation outages and derates along with generation hourly ambient
derates. We can support all functions, just a limited set or even be the go between with your current
OMS system and CAISO.
Confidential to Power Costs, Inc. (PCI)