Market Renewal Newsletter - November Update
November 30, 2021
From the desk of...
Samantha Tam, Market Rules Group, Market Renewal Program
The Market Rules team I am a part of continues our work to support the Market Renewal Program (MRP) market rules amendment process through the last quarter of 2021 and beyond. Earlier this year, draft market rules on Market Entry and Prudential Security were provisionally recommended by the technical panel and provisionally approved by the IESO Board. Recently, we provided education sessions on the next set of market rule amendments on Market Power Mitigation to the technical panel.
Behind the scenes, our team is concurrently working on drafting rules for the remaining topics including Market and System Operations, Settlements, Publishing and Reporting, and the Calculation Engines. This involves codifying the various detailed design requirements into legal obligations, working internally with MRP and legal subject matter experts, and carefully considering your feedback to ensure the drafted market rules are in alignment with the MRP design to support the new market.
To ensure quality and timeliness of this market rules drafting and amendment process, we encourage you to reach out to the MRP team at engagement@ieso.ca with your concerns, so your feedback can be discussed and attended to promptly. We appreciate your efforts and patience with reviewing the substantial amount of materials shared to date. Your engagement, constructive advice, and openness to conversations continue to be an integral part to the successful implementation of MRP market rules.
Thank you for the opportunity to support the MRP journey and I’m looking forward to our continued collaboration.
Samantha Tam
What we're working on
Progress Update on the Market Power Mitigation Reference Level Consultations
In early 2021, the IESO started reference level consultations with dispatchable resources including thermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, wind, solar, dispatchable loads and energy storage.
Consultations are progressing as expected and the current status is:
One of the final steps in the reference level consultation is for the IESO to communicate a Preliminary View Report to the relevant market participant. The Preliminary View Report communicates the reference levels and reference quantities for the resource that the IESO intends to use in the renewed market.
To date, the IESO has completed 20% of the total number of Preliminary View Reports for the renewed market and provided them to the relevant market participants.
Reference Level Consultations - Thermal Schedule Update:
Learning from the ongoing reference level consultations, the IESO is streamlining the approach for reference level consultations for dispatchable thermal resources.
This shift asks that all outstanding reference level consultations for dispatchable thermal resources have a target submission date of April 1, 2022. This revised approach provides ample time to prepare the workbooks and supporting documents, sets clear deadlines for participants, and allows the IESO provide support prior to the deadline, and allocate the time to review submissions.
The revised schedule applies to all market participants with dispatchable thermal resources that have not previously established a schedule for their reference level consultation.
The market power mitigation team continues to be available to support market participants in preparing their reference level submissions. Market participants with questions should contact engagement@ieso.ca.
Detailed design items carried forward to implementation
In the responses to stakeholder feedback on the Energy Detailed Design, the IESO stated that some pieces of feedback would be carried forward to be addressed in MRP’s implementation phase. An updated list of these items including their current status has been posted to the MRP implementation engagement page.
Related IESO news
Medium-Term RFP Draft Document Posted for Review
The draft Medium-Term Request for Proposals (RFP) is available for stakeholder input, marking another step forward in the IESO’s efforts to address growing supply needs this decade. These supply needs are driven by increasing demand, the retirement of the Pickering nuclear plant, the refurbishment of other nuclear generating units, and expiring contracts for existing facilities.
The Medium-Term RFP is intended to competitively procure up to 750 MW of unforced capacity (UCAP) from existing electricity generation or storage resources for a three-year commitment period starting May 1, 2026 with an optional two-year extension. A draft capacity contract will also be posted soon, with all input due back to the IESO by December 10, 2021. The final RFP and contract will be posted in early 2022.
This RFP represents another mechanism set out in the Resource Adequacy Framework to acquire resources based on their ability to offer services such as capacity or energy and not by fuel type. For this initial procurement, existing resources are best positioned to cost-effectively meet capacity needs emerging mid-decade and maintain reliability. It will be followed by other procurements - including a Long-Term RFP and subsequent cadenced medium-term RFPs, with expanded eligibility.